The fact that the EPA is doing their job poorly is not an indication that the work is pointless or useless. It just means that we need to find better ways to control the bureaucracy. Let’s start by changing the name to the Department of Natural Resources. We need to strike a balance between protecting the environment and exploiting our natural resources. An organization with a name such as the Environmental Protection Agency can not do that.
Second, get the most of the damned lawyers out of there and put some real business people, real engineers, and real scientists in there. When an organization gets too infested with one type of professional, they quickly lose sight of what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. This disease has hit many federal agencies. These days it seems the lawyers are running a disproportionate number of things in lieu of those who might actually know what is going on.
Third, there needs to be a balance and a tension, both within and outside an agency of this sort: The EPA, as it stands today, has none. The money you lay out to comply with their regulations isn’t their concern. This needs to end. Keeping the environment clean is not without cost. We need to weigh the short term and long term costs, and have an open discussion of what is worth pursuing. The EPA is not equipped to do that.
What does this mean? It means we have to rebuild an agency. It would surprise me if the EPA is the only such example. We have others that deserve at least as much of your scorn as they do. The FCC is one of them. The DHS is another. The list could be very long…
