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Opinion: The GOP’s environmental issues

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The good news about the debt ceiling debacle? It distracted the GOP from passing destructive environmental measures, the Times Editorial Board wrote Friday. The Republican party attached dozens of riders, which would end key environmental regulations, to an appropriations bill that funds the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the board wrote. The reason? The GOP believes measures to protect the environment are the source of the nation’s economic woes, the board said. Here’s an excerpt from the editorial:

If a moratorium on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon is ended, as one rider proposes, it could potentially result in contamination of the Colorado River, a key source of L.A.’s water. Another rider would block the Obama administration’s most significant environmental action to date, ending plans to set tough fuel-economy rules for vehicles built between 2017 and 2025 — in one fell swoop, this rider would waste billions of barrels of oil, cost consumers money at the pump and worsen air pollution. Other riders would block protections against the environmentally ruinous practice of mountaintop coal mining, forbid the EPA from limiting lung-clogging soot, allow unregulated discharge of pesticides into waterways and delay the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries.

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Not a single one of these riders should become law, and President Obama should make good on an administration threat to veto any bill that contains them.

For the most part, readers on the discussion board were on the side of Mother Nature –- and our health.

The GOP has no interest in the planet

This is absolutely nothing new on the GOP...

the GOP vs. the environment...of course, again and again!

the GOP vs. civil rights... with out a doubt!

the GOP vs. women’s rights...for sure no question!

Now its the GOP vs Social Security and medicare...Enough is enough!

The GOP has no interest in middle America, the planet, and solid programs that have kept millions of Americans from poverty and illness!

--ruberube

More ideology for ideology’s sake

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The thing is they are going out of their way to make sure companies pollute. Just how stupid is that?

This isn’t about deregulation even, it’s about literally encouraging individuals and companies to pollute. My God, this is ideology gone mad.

My old party, the party of Teddy Roosevelt who set-aside much of the national forest and parks we have today, the party of Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day and the principal author of the Environmental Protection Act, Richard Nixon of all people who encouraged Congress to pass that bill, signed it and created the EPA. The party that calls itself ‘conservative’ yet to them conservation is now so hated that they want people to pollute?

It’s ideology run amok, it’s ideology for ideology’s sake, it’s ideology that not only doesn’t take reality, science and common sense into account but an ideology that would impose the exact opposite of those things.

My old party has just become a cult...

--affableman

The real damage happens when nature’s well-being is put ahead of people’s well-being, in response to affableman

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Absolutely nothing about this encourages people to pollute. It is a lie, one built for an audience of the easily confused. Everyone, please line up after affableman.

Take a look at the massive flooding in Nebraska and Minnesota in the last few weeks. All of that was caused by environmental regulations that put a frog and a minnow ahead of millions of citizens. Because of those environmental regulations, the levees could not be drained appreciably, literally for months, until water backlog reached terminal flood stages. Some levees overran, some were let loose only once past the high water mark which resulted in the flooding of hundreds of thousands of acres and homes. Had the environmental laws been common-sensical -- which is what the GOP is advocating -- instead of absolutist overreactions and limiting, millions and millions of dollars and people’s livelihoods would have been saved.

And yes, this has an impact on the high grain and corn prices you are paying now, too. Flooded land isn’t tillable, thus a shortage of crop and increased prices.

--blahboy

More like “GOP vs. our health”

NEVER said is just what effects on our health we’re willing to accept in order to scale back regulations. Those for fewer environmental controls never mention health, just effects on flowers, trees, parks, etc. One just needs to go back to the 19th and early 20th centuries to see the effects of a total lack of controls on pollution. Look at Russia, China, India and other countries. we want to emulate them? Tell us what shortening of lifespan you’re willing to accept. Our current environmental regulations don’t come even close to ‘Earth First nonsense.’ Do we really want to follow the examples of Russia, China and many developing countries where a lack of pollution controls has led to huge health problems. The article shouldn’t be ‘GOP vs. Mother Nature,’ but ‘GOP vs. our health.’

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--undling

Tree-huggers are killing the development and jobs the country needs

Oh those evil Republicans who only want to go about wantonly polluting our air, ground, and water! At a time when this country needs development and jobs, tree-huggers are killing both. You ask for balance and compromise on budget issues, yet will not stand for such on environmental and development issues.

--TimBowman

To say this is an assault doesn’t take into account the measures that have already passed

First, there’s already uranium mining going on near the Grand Canyon and has been for years. It’s URANIUM. Would you rather they be digging for coal? Second, the Obama administration has been churning our regulations at many times the rate as ever before. To say it’s a breathtaking assault on the environment fails to take into account that none of the measures has been passed.

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--Michaelthepainter

*Spelling errors in the above comments were corrected.

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