To keep up with his empty suit ideological driven antics in congress I am on the e-mail list of Robert Hurt VA-5. I recently received a newsletter from him touting his co-sponsorship of HR-1633 which purports to prevent EPA regulation of farm dust. The Huffington post has a good report on what has transpired in committee so far and who the players are.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
As EPA administrators and Democratic congressmen have repeatedly pointed out there are no existing or proposed regulations targeting farm dust and this GOP bill is just another attempt to gut clean air regulations. Democratic congressmen Markey and Waxman gave their thoughts on this GOP effort:
“This isn’t just nonsense, it’s pure fantasy,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee where the bill was considered.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) went further, saying that since the problem being addressed was fictional, perhaps the committee should also combat the spread of pixie dust.
“There is no plan to regulate farm dust anymore than there is to regulate fairy dust,” Markey said in his opening statement. “There is no attempt to accomplish that goal,” he said, comparing the proposed measure to a bill written in the 1990s to combat the phony problem spread in a then-rampant urban myth that the Post Office intended to tax email messages.
“This bill should be relegated to the dustbin of similar urgent urban legends,” Markey said, before demanding, tongue in cheek, that EPA assistant administrator Regina McCarthy forswear regulation of fairy dust.
“Since I am sure that many little girls all over America care about this deeply, can you commit to me that EPA will never try to regulate fairy dust, or pixie dust, because, if not, we may just want to amend the legislation in order to protect us against the threat which could be posed by EPA or other regulatory agencies seeking to move into other fictional areas, such as the legislation which is being considered here?” he asked.
“After we look at the complete scientific review, yes,” McCarthy joked back.
The jokes aside, one might wonder why Hurt has taken up this fight which has entities such as copper miners, gravel pits, and rubber manufactuers lobbying for bill passage. He paints himself as a champion for small southside VA farmers against burdensome federal regulation but in reality he has an underlying agenda which I warned about here in Blue Virginia some time ago.
Hurt’s father is a principal in Virginia Uranium Incorporated who are pushing to get the ban on uranium mining lifted. One of the issues raised by mining opponents is the spread of uranium laden dust if the ban is lifted. Coincidence ? I think not.
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