The Lord says we got dominion, and there ain't no reason not to use it.

If I had to guess, I'd say this thread gets distracted and overcome by a climate change argument within the first fifty comments.

Prove me wrong, Farkers!

Obvious.

i'm tired of these "my financial overlords profits before country" asshats. i'm goin to start calling them what they are: traitors.

Because job creators and like such as crippling regulations and maps.

Tax cuts will solve the environment.

Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994)
The 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon is widely credited with broadening the base of the Republican Party and setting the stage for conservatism to become America's dominant political tradition. His 1968 campaign was fueled by his sharp criticism of the 1960s counterculture and anti-war movement. While Nixon espoused conservative views, he often tempered conviction with pragmatism. Nixon helped enact many of the nation's landmark environmental laws, which he saw as a means of unifying the nation.

______________________

"The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?"
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later."
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"Clean air, clean water, open spaces -- these should once again be the birthright of every American."
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called."
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open spaces needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are swallowed up--often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they are still available, we will have none to preserve."
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard."
Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

"Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans."
Statement on Signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973, December 28th, 1973

"...we must strike a balance so that the protection of our irreplaceable heritage becomes as important as its use. The price of economic growth need not and will not be deterioration in the quality of our lives and our surroundings."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"...because there are no local or State boundaries to the problems of our environment, the Federal Government must play an active, positive role. We can and will set standards. We can and will exercise leadership."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"People should not have to pay for pollution they do not cause."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"The destiny of our land, the air we breathe, the water we drink is not in the mystical hands of an uncontrollable agent, it is in our hands. A future which brings the balancing of our resources--preserving quality with quantity--is a future limited only by the boundaries of our will to get the job done."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"The 1970s must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaiming the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environment. It is literally now or never."
Statement About the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, January 1st, 1970

"Because the public lands belong to all Americans, this 1872 Mining Act should be repealed..."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"An important measure of our true commitment to environmental quality is our dedication to protecting the wilderness and its inhabitants. We must recognize their ecological significance and preserve them as sources of inspiration and education. And we need them as places of quiet refuge and reflection."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"As we work to expand our supplies of energy, we should also recognize that we must balance those efforts with our concern to preserve our environment. In the past, as we have sought new energy sources, we have too often damaged or despoiled our land."
State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

"The recent upsurge of public concern over environmental questions reflects a belated recognition that man has been too cavalier in his relations with nature. Unless we arrest the depredations that have been inflicted so carelessly on our natural systems--which exist in an intricate set of balances--we face the prospect of ecological disaster."
Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality, August 10th, 1970

"'Environment' is not an abstract concern, or simply a matter of aesthetics, or of personal taste -- although it can and should involve these as well. Man is shaped to a great extent by his surroundings. Our physical nature, our mental health, our culture and institutions, our opportunities for challenge and fulfillment, our very survival -- all of these are directly related to and affected by the environment in which we live. They depend upon the continued healthy functioning of the natural systems of the Earth."
Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality, August 10th, 1970

"The basic causes of our environmental troubles are complex and deeply embedded. They include: our past tendency to emphasize quantitative growth at the expense of qualitative growth; the failure of our economy to provide full accounting for the social costs of environmental pollution; the failure to take environmental factors into account as a normal and necessary part of our planning and decision making; the inadequacy of our institutions for dealing with problems that cut across traditional political boundaries; our dependence on conveniences, without regard for their impact on the environment; and more fundamentally, our failure to perceive the environment as a totality and to understand and to recognize the fundamental interdependence of all its parts, including man himself."
Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality, August 10th, 1970

Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)
The 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan emerged in the 1960s as one of America's preeminent conservatives. He also served two terms as the Governor of California (1967-1975). Known as the "Great Communicator," Reagan was without equal in convincingly articulating conservative values to the American public. Although not generally credited with a strong environmental record, Reagan signed 43 wilderness bills into law designating a net total of 10.6 million acres, and was instrumental in U.S. ratification of the Montreal Protocol -- which has dramatically reduced emissions of gases that deplete the upper atmosphere's protective ozone layer.

___________________

"If we've learned any lessons during the past few decades, perhaps the most important is that preservation of our environment is not a partisan challenge; it's common sense. Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnership as thoughtful, effective stewards of our natural resources."
Remarks on signing annual report of Council on Environmental Quality, July 11, 1984

"A strong nation is one that is loved by its people and, as Edmund Burke put it, for a country to be loved it ought to be lovely."
Message to Congress transmitting Council on Environmental Quality's annual report, February 19, 1986

"The preservation of parks, wilderness, and wildlife has also aided liberty by keeping alive the 19th century sense of adventure and awe with which our forefathers greeted the American West. Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destrutctive trespass of pollution. In our own time, the nearly universal appreciation of these preserved landscapes, restored waters, and cleaner air through outdoor recreation is a modern expression of our freedom and leisure to enjoy the wonderful life that generations past have built for us."
Message to Congress transmitting Council on Environmental Quality's annual report, October 3, 1988

"Generations hence, parents will take their children to these woods to show them how the land must have looked to the first Pilgrims and pioneers. And as Americans wander through these forests, climb these mountains, they will sense the love and majesty of the Creator of all of that."
Remarks upon signing legislation designating wilderness in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wisconsin, June 19, 1984

"The Montreal Protocol is a model of cooperation. It is a product of the recognition and international consensus that ozone depletion is a global problem, both in terms of its causes and its effects. The protocol is the result of an extraordinary process of scientific study, negotiations among representatives of the business and environmental communities, and international diplomacy. It is a monumental achievement."
Statement on signing the instrument of ratification of the Montreal Protocol on Ozone-Depleting Substances, April 5, 1988

"I just have to believe that with love for our natural heritage and a firm resolve to preserve it with wisdom and care, we can and will give the American land to our children, not impaired, but enhanced. And in doing this, we'll honor the great and loving God who gave us this land in the first place."
Remarks to National Campers and Hikers Association in Bowling Green, KY, July 12, 1984

"I believe in a sound, strong environmental policy that protects the health of our people and a wise stewardship of our nation's natural resources."
Radio address to nation on environmental and natural resources management, June 11, 1983

"I'm proud of having been one of the first to recognize that states and the federal government have a duty to protect our natural resources from the damaging effects of pollution that can accompany industrial development."
Radio address to nation on environmental issues, July 14, 1984

"Those concerns of a national character--such as air and water pollution that do not respect state boundaries, or the national transportation system, or efforts to safeguard your civil liberties--must, of course, be handled on the national level."
Address to Conservative Political Action Conference, Washington, DC, February 6, 1977

"What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live...And we want to protect and conserve the land on which we live -- our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it."
Remarks at dedication of National Geographic Society new headquarters building, June 19, 1984

Well of course, Submitter. The TeaBaggers have certainly shown they don't mind dumping toxins and waste on younger people if it keeps a few extra cents in their own pockets before they die off. They don't care about leaving a legacy of clean air and water for their children and grandchildren. This is the original self-involved "ME Generation" we're talking about, you know. "I got mine, so fark you."

mrshowrules: "We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard." --- Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

I swear by the FSM that I never thought I would see the day when Tricky Dick was remembered as the voice of sanity in the Republican Party.

Somacandra: mrshowrules: "We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard." --- Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, 1970

I swear by the FSM that I never thought I would see the day when Tricky Dick was remembered as the voice of sanity in the Republican Party.

not just dick, but raygun too ....
shudder

Both sides are bad

Minus job killing envirnomental regulations

vernonFL: [www.myknownbuzz.com image 640x480]


Minus job killing envirnomental regulations


[www.looking-glass-animations.co.uk image 640x426]

jesus those smoke-stacks turned a mountain into an ocean. what have we done? WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!!?

Cataholic: This is why we have the proverbial nose in the camel's tent/slippery slope arguments that seem to be pervasave in our political discourse. Any time you try to adjust something that might have gone too far, you are branded an "anti" and cast aside as being evil.

"...in Congress that could effectively roll back the federal government's ability to safeguard air and water more than 100 years..."

i'm not a scientist or nothin, but that doesn't sound like minor "adjustments"

Some of the efforts are broad-based, like the TRAIN Act, which would install overseers for the EPA and require cost considerations to trump health and science concerns for new rules.

environmental death panels?

we have secretly replaced the air supply in these congressmens offices with that from Beijing on a warm summers day. Lets see how long til they come out for a breath of fresh EPA protected air

Cataholic: thomps: Cataholic: This is why we have the proverbial nose in the camel's tent/slippery slope arguments that seem to be pervasave in our political discourse. Any time you try to adjust something that might have gone too far, you are branded an "anti" and cast aside as being evil.

"...in Congress that could effectively roll back the federal government's ability to safeguard air and water more than 100 years..."

i'm not a scientist or nothin, but that doesn't sound like minor "adjustments"

You left off the, "...Democrats and advocates say." part at the end of your quoted sentence. If you wish to take them at their word, that's your choice.

well put together, the acts would require congress to approve of any new regulation and make cost the primary consideration for enforcing regulations. that basically neuters the EPA to the point of non-existence, no?

Cataholic: Any time you try to adjust something that might have gone too far, you are branded an "anti" and cast aside as being evil.

except that is NEVER what republicans are doing. they're always attacking regulations that didn't go far enough.


the regulations already don't go far enough and damage is being done, measurable consistent damage.

Glacier national park might be without glaciers by the end of the century (sooner i think.. 2040 or so?)

Large polluted city WITH US environmental protections:


Large polluted city WITHOUT US environmental protections:


Freedom from job-killing regulations:


Go fark yourselves, GOP.

Djkb: People don't give mother nature enough credit. She will recover from whatever we do to her. She's seen worse!!

Life will probably survive no matter what we humans do, heck humans will probably survive. But I still think it's kind of worth the effort to keep our collective house clean.

Djkb: People don't give mother nature enough credit. She will recover from whatever we do to her. She's seen worse!!

Yeah, she'll be fine. Us on the other hand...

WHAT HAPPENED TO CONSERVATION, CONSERVATIVES?!!

Barbigazi: Djkb: People don't give mother nature enough credit. She will recover from whatever we do to her. She's seen worse!!

Yeah, she'll be fine. Us on the other hand...

I think that's what people don't understand. Strip a land that took Mother Nature millions of years to create and it will make the place unsuitable for us. Bacteria, weeds, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats and birds of prey will find a way to live in those areas. Sounds like great company to keep!

dahmers love zombie: Large polluted city WITH US environmental protections:
[i.imgur.com image 640x480]

Large polluted city WITHOUT US environmental protections:
[i.imgur.com image 475x333]

Freedom from job-killing regulations:
[i.imgur.com image 532x353]

Go fark yourselves, GOP.

But look at China's unemployment numbers! Removing regulations on environmental issues and child labor has made it a capitalist paradise1

Djkb: People don't give mother nature enough credit. She will recover from whatever we do to her. She's seen worse!!

Maybe if she didn't dress like a slut, this wouldn't happen to her (new window)

dahmers love zombie: Large polluted city WITH US environmental protections:

That is a nice beautiful clear day in West LA. Thats a nice shot.

Why do Republicans hate America? And the world?

clean air is really gay.

EWreckedSean: We get it, evil Republicans hate the economy. There is no chance that over regulation is a huge issue, right?

Obama halts EPA smog regulation (new window)

Bzzzt. Misdirection. Try again, shill.

So I hope their kids have fun paying the medical bills when their grandkids are born with 3 arms and 5 eyes.