Vitter slams EPA after mining giant abandons Alaskan project

By Ben Geman - 09/16/13 04:51 PM ET

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican on the Senate’s environment committee, blamed the Environmental Protection Agency Monday after a major mining company abandoned the business partnership seeking build a huge copper and gold mine in Alaska.  “This is a prime example of why the economy isn’t recovering. EPA and their far-left environmental allies are using unprecedented tactics to shut down potential projects and corresponding jobs before they’ve even begun the permitting process,” Vitter said after mining giant Anglo American abandoned the proposed Pebble Mine.

Vitter, who is ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and some other Republicans say EPA is mishandling the project, taking aim in particular at a major assessment of the impact of mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed.  They allege the EPA is prejudging the mine and inappropriately assessing its environmental footprint before there’s a final project design or permit applications.......Read more:

My Take - The EPA is out of control.  The solution?  Abolish the EPA.  All the experts say that will never happen. However....experts are so....so wrong.....so often.  Here are five more examples.

1. I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

2. "But what is it good for?"-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

3. "640K ought to be enough for anybody."-- Bill Gates, 1981

4. This 'telephone'has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us,"-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

5. "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

Abolish the EPA....and here is how!