Why do away with the Environmental Protection Agency?

The Environmental Protection Agency must be doing a good job. Corporations want it gone and the people it benefits have nearly forgotten it.

Industries say the EPA kills jobs, prevents development and reduces profits. Meanwhile, much of the public doesn't see what the fuss is all about. After all, the air and water are nice and clean and people need jobs. All that pollution stuff is just history anyway, isn't it?

Many are too young to remember things like the Love Canal, a burning Cuyahoga River, a near-dead Lake Erie or pesticides in mom's breast tissue.

Just 60 years ago midnight dumpers would siphon PCB's into your streams and DDT-laden eagles were nearing extinction. Greed and the blind eye of the uninformed meant industries could do as they pleased. The EPA, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts weren't just some liberal whim; they were intended to keep our babies from being born with an extra row of teeth.

When big corporations shout about EPA regulations, ask what it is they really want. Their motives and goals haven't changed over time. They've done little to show they've grown a conscience or care about anything but unchecked growth and money.

Under free-range capitalism people or rivers are less important than bigger profits gained by pouring toxins on the ground. It's cheaper to pollute and leave the people to live with it, so they say. Every step taken to discredit environmental laws has an ulterior motive and frankly, it's not the public's welfare.

What about the jobs, you ask. Much of that promise is a myth. You can make a living raping the Earth and ignoring the damages you've done - for a while.

Instead, you could as easily create jobs by developing clean technologies, reclaiming already-damaged lands and working toward sustainable industries.

Corporations can still hire workers while abiding by the laws. Sound economic policies don't demand ruthless exploitation or waste.

And there's a funny thing about those shiny promised jobs; they don't mean much if you can't breathe the air or get a drink of water.

Some folks say we don't need the EPA; let industries and states set the rules. But businesses would only accept laws benefiting their corporate personhood. Money is their priority, not people or ecosystems.

Your state could make its own rules but would fail miserably if a neighbor's lax regulations allowed pollution of your water table or air. The hodgepodge of laws would be a disaster.

The blackmail of power would force decisions for businesses, not the public.

Whenever someone wants to repeal good laws, you can suspect they're anxious to commit a crime. For self-protection, fairness and oversight we need federal watchdogs, not feral capitalism.

The next time some politician demands the EPA be done away with, ask them who they're representing. Is it you or some greedy corporation?

Ask them why they don't make the agency more efficient and effective instead of eliminating it.

' Russ Bennett is a retired farmer, conservation worker and prairie ecologist. Comments: rhbennett66@yahoo.com