e Coli Conservatism Part XX
by digby
Just in case you thought this Shock Doctrine assault on government was confined to economics, women's rights and anti-unionization, think again:
The Sierra Club has long had activists in Washington, DC, working to enact laws and policies that will protect our air, land, and water. So while I had been thinking that the Republicans (and some Democrats) in the House of Representatives seemed particularly aggressive about attacking the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies and policies to repeal environmental laws, this quote from a colleague from one of those long-time activists cemented it:
"This is by far the most concerted, aggressive attack on public health and environmental protections since Congress enacted modern environmental laws in the 1970s."
While battles are being waged over the Endangered Species Act, wild lands policies, the Clean Air Act and more, I'm taking this column to focus on this week's assault on the Clean Water Act.
It would appear that these people truly believe that life will be better if your assurance of clean drinking water is in the hands of profit making companies. It would be comforting to think they believe that these companies will do a good job because otherwise they'll kill a lot of people and that would be immoral. But that's not it. Or perhaps they think they would do a good job because of the threat of lawsuits. Well, of course not. They want to get rid of those too.
No, the reasoning is that competition will make them do a good job. You see, if a person gets sick from their water they'll be "free" to take their water cleaning business to another company. The fear of losing business will be enough to ensure your that your water isn't riddled with cholera.
Oh, and among those who are behind this are agri-business and coal who are terribly inconvenienced by the requirement that they keep their poisons out of our drinking water.
.