Leaping before Looking

IN response chiefly to the demands of environmentalists, a plethora of environmental bills has been enacted by Congress in the past two years. Often prodded by demagogues, radicals, and self-appointed elitists, legislators have adopted harsh environmental emission restrictions without sufficient regard for what should be the primary criterion, namely environmental quality, i.e., the state of our air and water. In most cases, a deaf ear has been turned to the legitimate concerns and interests of industry. The net result of such irrational legislation is the imposition of an unattainable goal: “superclean” air and water with exorbitant and nationally debilitating costs to achieve them.

Seldom, if ever, in all the information, misinformation, propaganda, and politicking on environmental questions, have the important associated issues of cost or of the developing energy crisis been considered, or explained adequately to the American people. A complex technical issue has been injected into politics, and we are leaping before looking.

RC

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Richard B. Carroll

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IN response chiefly to the demands of environmentalists, a plethora of environmental bills has been enacted by Congress in the past two years. Often prodded by demagogues, radicals, and self-appointed elitists, legislators have adopted harsh environmental emission restrictions without sufficient regard for what should be the primary criterion, namely environmental quality, i.e., the state of our air and water. In most cases, a deaf ear has been turned to the legitimate concerns and interests of industry. The net result of such irrational legislation is the imposition of an unattainable goal: “superclean” air and water with exorbitant and nationally debilitating costs to achieve them.

Seldom, if ever, in all the information, misinformation, propaganda, and politicking on environmental questions, have the important associated issues of cost or of the developing energy crisis been considered, or explained adequately to the American people. A complex technical issue has been injected into politics, and we are leaping before looking.