On 2008-04-09, Jay Honeck wrote:
Over the last forty years, environmentalists have innocently and quietly
influenced the wording and structure of our regulations in a way that has
ultimately made it quite impossible to address our current energy issues.

That's patently untrue.

Environmental regulation, on the other hand, has at least made those of
us who have oil refineries in their back yard a reasonable quality of
life.

It's all been innocuous, and "for the children" -- but it's completely
hog-tied us now that we really ARE in an energy bind.

It's for the adults, too. I've lived in an oil town, and even with the
environmental regulations we have today, the sky still turns green over
La Porte, and after flying a clean aircraft for a half hour, you land
and there's a film of gunk adhering to the leading edges of everything.
This is Texas City, Baytown, La Porte and most of the east side of
Houston today, not a story from antiquity. If you're flying the ILS into
Galveston, you can do without a marker beacon in your panel - the air
gets a unique stench as you approach the outer marker (and for most of
the rest of the approach). Texas City residents just have to live with
that stench.

The examiner I had for my instrument rating checkride came from Beaumont.
He's the lived the longest out of any member of his recent family - 50
years old. When he was a kid growing up, the rivers used to catch fire.

If that's what you really want, are you prepared to live in an oil town?
It's terribly easy to sit in rural Iowa and decree that oil towns should
be cancerous armpits. Having lived in an oil town, I think the
environmental regulations aren't tight enough.

Why don't you campaign locally to get oil refineries set up in Iowa
City?

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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