It's important to tell a balanced story. Parts of America was like this. Most of it was not. Civil suits failed to curb industrial emissions in built-up areas,

It's important to tell a balanced story. Parts of America was like this. Most of it was not. Civil suits failed to curb industrial emissions in built-up areas, which then spilled over everywhere else. The EPA was a godsend. I didn't understand the problem until the first time I visited L.A. Wow, what a mess. The air was so thick. It was disgusting. It's amazing the progress we have made. But the EPA, like so many other agencies (I'm looking at you, TSA) is an agency without a limiting factor. You come up with a devil, you pass a bunch of rules, then you spend the next few years issuing press releases about how you're saving the world. What's happened to American politics in many areas is that there are no feedback loops. When I look at the smog in LA back in the day and how the skies look now? That's a feedback loop. My government is doing something I want them to do. But when they talk about parts per billion versus parts per trillion? It's not evidently clear to me as a voter that we're not just continuing to expand our empire, just like the rest of the agencies. I love what the EPA has done and I support them. But without some kind of limiting feedback loop my support really doesn't mean much. It's just a platitude. I don't support any agency that just runs off on their own taking more and more control over things for reasons I don't understand (or reasons I do understand but disagree with.) So sure, EPA yay! So what the hell does that actually mean? ADD: No matter what the group, big corporate governance groups, local town councils, Non-profit boards, or federal agencies, political groups exist for political reasons. We may laud their goals and love some of the things they've done, but when you are chartered because politics, and you get funding because politics, and people love or hate you because politics -- your primary concern is political. That's not a knock on anybody, that's just the logic of how these things work.