Reading news from Washington DC, while spending a week in China, it seems to me that some members of Congress are backing policies that would make America much more like China – – without any of the economic benefits.
In the race to compete in a global economic recovery, the US may have a secret weapon against rivals like China and even economies closer to ours, such as Canada. China may be graduating more engineers and scientists; Canada may have a better health care system; but the US has an unlikely secret weapon that has put American companies and workers in a position to race ahead of the pack for years to come – – the USEPA.
s summer gives grudging way to our back-to-work lives, busy execs will likely compare notes at Chamber of Commerce luncheons about the economy and job creation.
We can all imagine those conversations, given recent market and political news, but here are a few you won’t be likely to overhear.
Ever see those signs that say, “If you lived here, you’d be home by now”?
They’re usually affixed to urban revitalization projects located near mass transit hubs (of course you’re commuting another hour to your sprawl development in the ‘burbs when you read it).
Dickens begins his novel with the famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Were he writing today about the two American cities—Lexington, Mass. and Colorado Springs, Colo.— he might say, “It was the brightest of towns, it was the dimmest of towns.” In this case, bright and dim refer quite literally to light levels, but also to the decision making of two very different sets of civic leaders.
The House of Representatives has proposed legislation to cut USEPA funding by almost 20% and curtail its ability to tackle a wide range of pollution issues.
The regulated industries and their allies in Congress may be hopeful of reduced cost and a less intrusive government, but they should be very careful of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Fingers crossed. BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in common with those that are on the “top ten worst” list – – and offers lessons we can profit from.
Everyone loves a “man bites dog” story. Not everyone likes those tales, however, if they embarrass someone in the process.
Last week, oil company executives testified to Congress about energy policy in the wake of BP’s ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A casual observer may have thought we were transported to an alternate universe. At one session, Representative Joe Barton of Texas apologized to BP for what he called a White House “shakedown” (because President Obama demanded a $20 billion escrow account from BP to ensure that damage claims will be paid).
Earlier this year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke about discovering that truckloads of single-use plastic shopping bags imported into his war-torn nation were squandering precious resources of fuel while risking the lives of truck drivers as they passed through insurgent held territories.