Posted on 12/07/2016 5:57:18 AM PST by xzins
The EPA is without a doubt the most corrupt agency in the Obama Administration.
That’s saying something when you consider the fact that there have been over a dozen scandals during his reign.
Remember when the EPA accidentally dumped millions of gallons of toxic waste into the drinking water that was used by thousands of people?
They’ve never been punished for it in a meaningful way and apparently that could change very soon.
From The Daily Signal:
“New Mexico and Colorado are both suing the EPA, and now the Supreme Court has asked the acting solicitor general of the United States, Ian H. Gershengorn, to weigh in on the pending litigation.
This request represents one more chance for the government, and possibly the Trump administration, to hold the EPA accountable for its fiasco.
Accidents by private parties that are remarkably similar to the Animas River spill have led to criminal prosecutions in the past. Consider an example from Alaska:
[One] backhoe operator accidentally struck an oil pipeline in Alaska in 1994, and 1,000 to 5,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Skagway River. The Environmental Protection Agency had his supervisor—who was at home and off-duty at the time of the accident—criminally prosecuted for negligent discharge under the Clean Water Act.
A district court sentenced him to six months in prison, another six months in a halfway house, another six months on supervised release, and imposed a $5,000 fine.
The article goes on:
A second back-hoe operator accidentally struck open the flooded Gold King Mine of Colorado in August 2015, and 3,000,000 gallons of yellow water laced with mercury, lead, and other toxic heavy metals spilled into the Animas River—a regional source of water for drinking and irrigation. The EPA worked to contain the spill, but it held no one accountable.
The main difference, of course, is the second back-hoe operator happened to work for the EPA.”
The spill poisoned the drinking water of the Navajo Nation which is one of the largest Indian reservations in the country.
Isn’t it weird how liberals rallied around the situation in Standing Rock but yet completely ignored the EPA spill in Colorado?
Where were the protests about the government endangering Native Americans in this spill?
Did their lives not matter?
Little bit of a double standard there…
Let’s also not forget that this agency has killed an incredible amount of American jobs.
This is definitely a positive development and hopefully, someone will finally hold the EPA accountable.
Selective prosecution for the same offense is hypocrisy, but it is also unjust.
Winning is AWESOME! What a Christmas season.
The government seems to be punishment-proof.
That’s why God sent Donald Trump to punish it. The court follows the election returns, so goes the adage.
Or
Are the taxpayers going to pay the "fine" ?
If the one got prison, then the other should, too.
It will be a trifling investment to pay for this clean up out of the public coffers if it also throws the whole mess before the public which will cry “Crucify!”
exactly, but we shall see.
Or else, suddenly the USSC will say whoa, only civil liability ought to apply here and we have imposed cruel and unusual punishment. A shielding precedent for the private sphere.
Just wondering if the court will find the epa liable, fine them, and then get the fine out of tax dollars rather than the culprits themselves who are responsible.
That’s what happens when the EPA focuses on seltzer bubbles and every other little thing in the universe instead of clean air and water.
This will be decided under the Trump justice department, so it will be handled differently.
If both were accidental and not gross incompence of some sort, then I’d prefer the one imprisoned be exonerated and compensated in some way.
Correction in my last post: incompetence.
Call before you dig?
It could point out the circular nature of doing that, and simply require EPA to clean it up satisfactorily “at its own expense.”
The nanny will have been nannied, at least.
Their drive to skew reality by redefinition of words makes them very dangerous. They should be shut down
I would favor govt employees held to same standards as private, and any fines or punishments for wrongdoing to come out of their own hide and holdings.
Oh, and dismember the epa.
To return this to the realm of civil remedies, unless the equivalent of malice aforethought were to be shown, would be in the spirit of the constitution we used to know.
EPA needs to GO!
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