The truck in that movie had the most amazing tires. They kept that truck glued to the road while the winds threw everything around, plus, it had self-repairing glass.

 

I don't care what VW did, crazy diesel emission laws here anyway...

 

My degree is in wildlife biology so I'm very much into the outdoors BUT here are some of my issues with the EPA.

It's all well and good they try to limit pollution and seeing polluted rivers, streams and such disgust me BUT when it comes to the air, how much good are these VERY tight restrictions when China produces 14X more air pollution than we do and they don't care?

The production of building one hybrid or battery car creates more environmental carcinogenic by-products than operating a similar size, 4 cylinder gas car creates in 10 years. One hour of mining for nickel and copper ( key ingredients in both NmH and Li-ion batteries ) produces about 22 lbs. of sulfur oxide emissions while the average car produces about 2 lbs. a year.

The amount of NOx produced by 15 oil tankers bringing oil across the sea using very low grade diesel fuel is roughly equal to what the world's 760 million cars and passenger trucks produces. Marine diesel contains about 2000 TIMES the sulphur content allowed in US Highway diesel.

With almost no regulations on these and countless thousands of other pollution issues the EPA has no control over, or is not in their financial interest to limit, it seems pointless to,pick on the American consumer.

Just some random thoughts...

 

I gave up expecting intelligent behavior from any governmental (I note that "mental" is a part of that word.... coincidence? I don't think so.) organization. The local water department here, (forgot the nifty techno sounding title of it) forced a company to block off an artesian well, (one that flows naturally) because in the event of a flood, it could become contaminated....... Give that it is on fairly high ground, that area rarely, if ever, floods, and due to the pressure at the surface, the 'flood' would need to be 14 FEET deep to overcome the pressure, and "contaminate" the well..... I found their reasoning well beyond stupid. Even the thousand year floods wouldn't generate that level of flooding around here.

What was it REALLY all about? A government agency found itself with some new-found power, and wanted to exercise it. That's it. There was absolutely zero reason for this, yet it happened anyway. (and I went so far as to go to a few meetings, and point out their major logic flaw here, yet, I was ignored.)

 

It is ridiculous that America(and the EPA) have very little control over the real polluters that are left in the world today. America has really cleaned their act up but like he said about China, and the tankers we put out an insignificsnt amount compared to the unregulated industries and nations.


However, it's unethical and just plain dumb to not even try to regulate ourselves, solely because no one else regulates themselves. But they do go overboard a lot of the times it seems.


Also, a lot of it is just dumb politics. Why are we not building new nuclear power plants? Because of politics dammit. And politics directly reflects how seemingly unintelligent the general population is these days.

 

Why should the USA or the EPA which is a part of the USA have any say over any of the real polluters that are not a part of the USA? We can only control what goes on with the companies and people who live in this country. That is part of our problem is that we think we as a country have a right to dictate to other countries what they can and can't do.

Now our EPA pulls enough bone head moves as it is they don't need more environment to worry about. And all the stupid crap they have done with the new rules on diesel fuel and emissions is just crazy.

 

Here is what Pittsburgh, Pa looked like when Carnegie Steel Mills were in operation:


I've read historical accounts of what it was like to live there, and they weren't pretty. People couldn't breathe, and the sky was obliterated. The modern equivalent would be Bejing:


A photo comparison of Los Angles, Ca:


Let's not forget this do-gooder, who would have been reviled today for using Presidential powers to set aside millions of acres of land in order to create the National Forests:


US environmental law dates to the 1790's and has evolved as needed in order to protect and preserve natural resources. Some of you are probably too you to remember the Cuyahoga River Fire.

As Wildman4x4 pointed out, the US should focus on itself when setting environmental standards and not dictate to other countries; however, the US can indirectly guide other countries to change their environmental standards via treaty or economic incentives, such as not conducting business with that country. That's how the ivory trade has almost been eradicated.

Every time I see a post/picture of coal rollers, or I see one of those jackasses on the road, it makes me wonder why those people don't like clean air. I wonder how many coal rollers don't smoke because of what tobacco smoke does to the lungs. Guess what -- the pollution from motor vehicles and industrial stacks have the same effect.

 

I can remember driving thru Gary Indiana, and not being able to breathe...... along comes the EPA, and lets not forget Nixon.... and all the steel mills in Gary just disappeared. Oddly enough, the air cleared up quite nicely. Of course, Gary turned into a ghost town as well....

And today, there is a steel mill operating there again, that was 'grandfathered' in, so it doesn't have to comply with EPA regulations. Nice huh?