LETTERS: EPA IS GOING TOO FAR

To the editor:

The Environmental Protection Agency is running amok. It is a good example of too much money and not enough brains. If left unchecked, the EPA will completely bankrupt the middle class in America with its useless and over-costly regulations.

One good example is the banning of Freon as a refrigerant in air conditioners. The EPA made this decision on a theory that Freon was responsible for the hole in the ozone layer, thus creating global warming. First, there is no proof that global warming is actually a fact. Many scientists say the average world temperatures have always fluctuated in a fairly narrow range over the centuries. Even if global warming were a fact, there is no concrete proof that Freon contributes to it. It's all just a myth. The cost the public when all the present air-conditioning units get old and need recharging will be staggering (and needless), since the only approved refrigerant is many times higher in cost than Freon.

When the EPA was first brought into being, it was supposed to clean up the air and water. When it accomplished this as well as it could, an overly generous Congress budgeted the EPA increasing amounts of money each year for a job which, for the most part, was already done. Like all government agencies, the EPA won't admit it has too much money. Instead, it finds a way to spend it. The EPA took over the duties of the conservation department. Now it wants to protect every animal, bird and bug that exists and especially the ones that are the most harmful to people. Dinosaurs are extinct, and I can't find a person who is sorry for it.

Now the EPA is at it again. It wants to impose stricter rules for about everything. Cost to the public is no matter to the EPA, since it isn't paying for it.

If the EPA really wanted to do something that would do some good and at much less cost, it could turn its energies toward limiting immigration. People and their activities are what cause pollution, so if we didn't have such an influx of new people, we wouldn't have such an increase in pollution. There is always a simple solution to every problem besides spending huge sums of money.

RAY UMBDENSTOCK

Cape Girardeau