Victor Davis Hanson
. . . "The Environmental Protection Agency spilled 3 million gallons of
toxic sludge into a tributary of the Animas River in Colorado. The
stinky yellow flume of old mine waste — rife with cancer-causing mercury
and arsenic — threatens to pollute the drinking and recreational water
of three states.
"Had a private oil company acted so incompetently and negligently, it
would have been fined billions of dollars by the same EPA. The company’s
top executives might have been subject to criminal prosecutions. The
business’s reputation would have been tarnished for years. Just ask BP
officials what the Obama administration did to the corporation after the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.
"But who will police the green police at the EPA?
"When EPA administrator Gina McCarthy promises that the agency will
take “full responsibility,” what does that tired banality mean? Will she
resign? Will bureaucrats responsible for the toxic spill face fines and
jail sentences? Will residents be able to sue McCarthy and her
subordinates for diminishing their quality of life? Will the Sierra Club
and the Environmental Defense Fund rush to federal court to file
briefs?
"Consider the vast bureaucracy of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Is it culpable for knowingly not enforcing immigration law
and thus allowing some undocumented immigrants to commit violent crimes?" . . .