Earth Day is dead: the EPA’s fall from a scientific organization to a manipulable political tool

I don’t see why people feel compelled to celebrate Earth Day—which was yesterday if you were fortunate enough to avoid the phony phenomena of a day of brainless, bumper-sticker sentiments.

For one, Earth Day isn’t real news. It’s what Daniel Boorstin years ago called a manufactured news event. They wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the media’s desire to hype them. Boorstin used to be required reading in college. Perhaps not anymore because Earth Day is one of the cherished touchstones of college-educated environmentalists.

You rarely see welders or heavy equipment operators getting excited about Earth Day. Then again, most welders and heavy equipment operators are fully employed. Perhaps they don’t have time to reflect on the meaning of Earth Day because they’re too busy bringing clean water to your tap, generating electricity for your house and building paved roads so Amazon can deliver goodies to your door.

The biggest sham for Earth Day 2014 was the spectacle of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy jetting all over the country to give speeches on a five day tour. Might we remind Ms. McCarthy that air travel creates more pollution per passenger mile than any other form of transportation.

Next time, I recommend she take the bus, which would be far more appropriate since buses have the smallest carbon footprint of any transportation mode. Buses are even more carbon efficient than trains, but I doubt our environmental elites would ever set foot in such a low-class mode of transportation. Some burdens, even for the planet, are just too heavy to bear.

Long term, the EPA has hurt its credibility by continuing to promote the use of ethanol blends in gasoline.The ethanol industry lobbied Congress for this 30 years ago, saying it would reduce oil imports and air pollution. Neither turned out to be true, but in addition to buying Congress’ fealty, the ethanol lobby tweaked the legislation so that the oil companies would also benefit from a $1 a gallon ethanol tax credit. So with environmental groups clamoring for it and Congress and Big Oil bought off we now have a failed and counterproductive energy policy that the public doesn’t want and nobody can change.

I’ll be the first to admit, this is the way things get done in the United States. The collusion of politics, big business and money has a long history. It’s how we built the transcontinental railroad and the nation’s electric grid. If a few fat cats grew rich off these schemes, so be it. Happens all the time.