Many are proposing cuts for Medicare and Medicaid as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. On Friday, Sept. 21, the House of Representatives voted to eliminate the EPA before they left for another recess so they can return to their districts to try to win their jobs back. The high cost of health care and reduction of regulations go hand in hand. Many in our country are sick due to the quality of air, water, and waste management. I have written before about regulations for fossil fuels - the mining, transporting and burning.
I have had neighbors who have cracks in their homes and drinking water wells going bad due to exploding in the strip mines of Ohio. I cannot fathom living near mountain top mining with the enormous amount of TNT. Someone said the mountain top mining is strip mining on steroids. One weekend my husband and I went to a beautiful gorge called the New River Gorge in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Some of this area is protected now because part of it is a national park. We then took a side trip to a small town called Twighlight. There was not much left. The small towns are being wiped out by flooding water and sludge from the coal. The streams are contaminated as well as the air as the dust floats to the valleys. The roads are less safe because large trucks are transporting huge machines to use in the mining process and hauling coal to the trains.
When I hear candidates like Bill Johnson, David Mckinley, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan say they are going to work to reduce government regulation, I need to remind them of the burning waters of the Cuyahoga River back in the '60s and early '70s. They never visited Akron with the rancid smell of rubber nor Youngstown where you had to paint your house every year if you wanted it to look clean. Many say the regulations cause a loss of jobs. I think there are fewer employed in strip mining than underground. Some of the operators do not live in the affected areas. The only ones benefiting from this type of mining are a few large coal companies who then use their profits to contribute to politicians to keep regulations at a minimum. A major mining company is closing mines and laying off about 1,200 people. The say it is due to all the government regulations. Actually, it is because at this time natural gas is less costly and cleaner than coal.
I know many of my friends and neighbors do not think climate change is a fact. After this summer, I would think they would realize we, the people, are making a change on this earth and it is not for the good of the planet nor its inhabitants. I think giant windmills look better than bare mountain tops and polluted air and water. We need to elect officials who will protect us by keeping the EPA and other regulators of food, banks, and Wall Street.
Margaret Meeker
Williamstown
