The reality is that the USA is on the verge of Victory. Victory for the Environment merits a VE day celebration. It is, but for but two cities, almost an environmental Victory now. Every other municipality in the USA has cleaned its air. Only two cities remain, whose air has certainly gotten cleaner, but not yet clean enough.
When Houston and Los Angeles achieve the cleanup needed, we can hold the VE National Holiday celebrations. I recommend we do it on the anniversary of Earth Day. Other dates are possible. Perhaps more appropriate, would be dates like the Patent day for the GM Catalytic converter, or the Nuclear power plant, or the diesel-electric Locomotive, or the launch of the first oil powered ship. Another date to be commemorated was GM’s first license of the technology to a competitor, essentially for free, to spread the technology of the catalytic converter.
But we should begin now to plan for that VE Day event. It’s coming soon.
We need do nothing more than simply maintain our standards, and not slide back wards. The aging dirty fleet of older, dirtier cars, when replaced with new models, and other steps just recently enacted, will be more than enough to accomplish the Final Victory. The steps taken under the Bush Administration, and confirmed by the Obama Administration, to bring large Trucks, Locomotives, Marine Shipping, Construction equipment, and Farm implement engines into the regulations, will help.
The environmental cleanup has taken a century, or more.
There was the decision to shift to oil fired shipping, instead of coal. Diesel-electric and electrified Rail were cleaner than steam-coal locomotives and were sold and deployed. General Electric and Westinghouse companies and their engineers, pioneered much cleaner commercial nuclear power for America and the world. It all helped.
In the early 1970s USA citizens urged the acceleration of regulation by creating the EPA. General Motors effort led to the catalytic converter; and Chrysler pioneered computer controlled ICE engines. The cleanup technology they pioneered for autos and light trucks, led to America cleanup achievements and for the rest of the World’s automakers to follow.
These and other advances accelerated during the last 40 years. They will complete the final Air Quality victory drive.
It is time to consider how to demobilize the Army of regulators. And plan the size and shift to a peacetime, maintenance Army of environmental regulation.
How will we spend the ‘Peace Dividend’? I recommend deficit reduction, but let the debate begin, now.
MoveOn.org is trying to blunt the triumph of many Americans over the last century; and as always, once again tell everyone that America and Americans are dirty, filthy polluters of the World. Their constant defiling of the country grows wearisome, as well as just plain wrong.
