In the 1960’s people in Los Angeles could not breathe. America was becoming affluent and for the first time many families had two cars or more. Gas was less than 20 cents a gallon. Nobody seemed to care if the smoke out of the back of the car was white, clear, or black. You couldn’t see across the street some days. The Freeways were great but they became smog congested. One day the worst happened. More than twenty people were killed on the freeways and none were involved in an accident. They simply could not breathe with all the smog. That’s how bad it was. California smog was on the news every night. Congress took action, and a new entity was born, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Before the EPA was fully staffed, Congress passed the Clean Air Act! And poof, the air was clean. Well, not exactly but it was on its way to being clean. Today, Californians can see across the street and the air has improved so much that the experts say, [really] clean air is within sight. There is a lot of good breathing going on. California is well ahead of the EPA today. The EPA was just a few people back in the 1970’s and with Congress on their side, things got done. These good natured lovers of nature camped in old wooden sided station wagons known as a Woody back then. Things have sure changed. By 2015, from that Woody, there are now 18,000 employees and they are always upset about something you or I are doing. They seem to hate mankind and love Mother Nature. They blame humans for pollution and sins against nature. President Obama gave them immense power to regulate outside of Congress. So, today, they determine silly stuff such as light bulbs but they limit personal freedom and they ignore the cumulative economic damage of new regulations on the economy and jobs. Their worst sins are banning DDT for the sake of population control and banning the most effective asthmatic inhalers causing children to suffer. If the EPA was perfect in the 1970’s it is now completely imperfect. It is ruining the America we love. This job preventing agency must be shut down!
