Been reading about an increase in gas prices coming again. This time it’s due do more EPA regulations. Has to do with regulations to minize the sulphur content of motor fuel. Sulphur is a natural element…just like carbon.
The EPA is a government agency that like most any agency is funded by tax dollars. In order to get funding each year, most agencies must be able to justify their existence by showing that they have done something the year before to make a difference.
If no funding comes, the agency would have to lay off workers. This cycle of making changes to get funding to keep EPA workers employed sets up a condition that has created a very destructive agency. We outsource so much of our work because of environmental issues and the costs associated with EPA regulations that we have lost our ability to make much of anything affordably. We have continued increases in EPA vehicle emissions regulations and they are now further tightening the regulation on a naturally occuring element, sulphur. Is this regulation to justify the EPA’s existence and show they are making a difference or is reducing an emission of a naturally occuring element from the periodic chart of elements a way to recieve funding for the coming fiscal year?
I spent some time living in a country that doesn’t have this foolishness and they seem to be doing quite well. The busses puked out a black cloud of smoke sometimes when they started from a stop and refineries there burn off unusable waste products of the oil refinement process and create smoke and smells that while a little unpleasant, represents jobs for the local people. They are one of the wealthiest nations in the world partiality because they don’t have agencies like the EPA wringing their hands as a special interest group worrying about the emission of naturally occurring elements.
Maybe they could make something up about the harmful vehicle emissions of the inert gasses and regulate them. At least on paper it would look like they were doing something and could be funded and keep their jobs.
Rowland Ramble - 