leif, if you will allow me.
Excerpts from the Fallen Empire from HELL!
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The initial laws I helped write have become increasingly more draconian, yet they have not benefitted our environment or the health of our citizens. Instead, they suppress our economy and the right of our citizens to make an honest living. It seems to me, and to others, that this is actually the intention of those in EPA and in Congress who want to see government power expanded without regard to whether it is needed to protect the environment or public health.
With 30 years of experience, these 50 state environmental agencies are ready to take over management of the nation's environment. Only the EPA research laboratories should be left in place at the national level to answer additional scientific questions, and even these laboratories must be substantially reorganized, freed from the grip of insiders who use them to justify new regulations rather than genuinely study the science.<8> Increasingly, the federal laboratories should be exposed to competition from state-funded research efforts to keep them honest.
Eighty percent of what is now national EPA's budget could be eliminated, and the remaining 20 percent could be used to run the research labs and administer the Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental agencies. A relatively small administrative structure would be needed to allow the states to refine existing environmental laws in a manner more suitable to the primary requirement of protecting our environment without thwarting national progress in industry and the development of our natural resources and energy supplies.
Five-Year Phase-Out
National EPA could be phased out over five years, with a one-year preparation period followed by a four-year program in which 25 percent of the agency's activities would be passed to the Committee of the Whole each year. The Committee of the Whole would be made up of representatives from each state from each significant area of concern. The committee would be divided into subcommittees, reflecting how EPA is set up, though many programs and offices within EPA may be eliminated at the will of the states. For instance, offices whose primary purpose is oversight of the state agencies no longer would be necessary.
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