We are so well and truly screwed:
OK, here’s something that might even be scarier than the latest report about the dumping of “mystery liquids” in Pennsylvania’s water supply. The man that Gov. Tom Corbett is tasking to deal with the problem is utterly clueless.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Michael Krancer, your next Pennsylvania environmental protection commissioner:
In his opening remarks, Krancer emphasized a business-first philosophy of environmental regulation, saying “Responsible, strong, vibrant and growing business is necessary as an engine for the protection of the environment.”
If anyone had doubts about that, he said, “One need only look to the former Iron Curtain experience and the pollution that is there to prove that a moribund economy is the enemy of environmental protection.”
Democratic Senator Daylin Leach, who had introduced Krancer and said he “could not be happier” with Krancer’s appointment, responded “They also had very weak environmental enforcement, and that’s a reason there were the pollution problems there were.”
Leach is right (about enforcement, not about Krancer) and Krancer is beyond clueless. The reality is that by the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, both capitalistic and communist economies were ruining the environment, partly from ignorance and partly from governments in both systems not aggressively tackling the problem.
You see- the Iron Curtain environmental disaster happened because of a lack of economic freedom, not because a bunch of autocratic lunatics who thought they were doing the people’s work and who ignored or manipulated science and attacked anyone who pointed out they were wrong allowed industries to do whatever they wanted. Sound familiar?
You Say Iron Curtain, I Say Economic FreedomPost + Comments (87)