Friday, July 03, 2015

EPA Declares Personal Freedom Dead : Governement IS God

As we have stated here on many occasions, the EPA is the most dangerous threat to American security, personal freedom and therefore prosperity that exists today, other then the White House itself. But then, who controls the EPA?

And what, on this very special holiday, Independence Day, where the people decided it was time to declare enough control from others, which is the foundation for what our Declaration of Independence is all about, our personal freedom to chose one's own destiny and the ownership of property without the hand of government interfering? 

Here the EPA is telling us you have no rights of freedom to chose and you now have no rights to own property without regulation and restriction from others. Was the war fought all those years ago for nothing?

The question that remains is why have the people of this great country decided it's okay to turn our personal freedoms over to the control of unelected bureaucrats in the EPA and other government agencies?

It's hard to deny this when they voted twice to make sure it happens. Is Gruber right?

The EPA Targets Private Property Over Water
Source: Leigh Thompson, "The EPA's Troubled Waters," National Review, June 5, 2015.

June 16, 2015

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promised clarity over the last year as it put the final touches on its expansive and overreaching definition of "waters of the United States" (WOTUS). Yet, a week after they published the final rule, the only clarity the EPA has provided is its intent to snatch up every piece of land that can channel, pool or absorb water and include it within its newly minted jurisdiction.

The effects of this rule are both far-reaching and disastrous:
  • The amended definition of a "tributary" will expand the EPA's dominion to ephemeral flows. If a tributary contributes any flow at all, regardless of frequency or volume, to a downstream water, it is now within the EPA's purview.
  • To build one's home, to plant crops as a means of livelihood, to erect a fence or build a road, the average person will now need to seek a permit from the Corps of Engineers.
  • A permit can cost into the hundreds of thousands; or you can gamble, proceed with your development plans, and risk exposure to fines up to $37,500 per violation, per day.
Making matters worse, there is no clear ability to appeal a Corps of Engineers decision about what is or is not a "navigable water." This leaves property owners who are within the jurisdiction of unfavorable circuits with no ability to recoup costs from litigation or the effective loss of their property.

Unsurprisingly, inside the EPA, the left hand does not appear to know what the far-left hand is doing. Two days after the ink dried on the final WOTUS rule, the EPA released its proposal for expanding the Renewable Fuel Standard through 2016. Together these rules will require more corn, more land and more permits, with fewer property rights and less freedom — leaving farmers in the crosshairs of bad policy.
 

No comments: