No matter how many lives you screw up and how much damage you do.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it will not repay claims totaling more than $1.2 billion for economic damages from a mine waste spill the agency accidentally triggered in Colorado, saying the law prohibits it.
The EPA said the claims could be refiled in federal court, or Congress could authorize payments.
But attorneys for the EPA and the Justice Department concluded the EPA is barred from paying the claims because of sovereign immunity, which prohibits most lawsuits against the government.
"It's such a SURPRISE to us that our promises were lies! We never imagined!"
Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., expressed disbelief at the EPA’s decision,
saying the agency had promised to compensate the people who suffered.
“The
news today is a complete departure from that commitment, and our
states, local governments, and tribes can rest assured that we will
continue to work to make the EPA accountable for the mess they have
made,” he said.
Fat friggin' chance.
And, don't forget,
The U.S. Attorney in Denver will not prosecute an Environmental Protection Agency employee involved in the Gold King Mine disaster, leaving it to the agency to determine administrative action against the employee.
...
Instead of a criminal prosecution, the EPA’s internal investigators
“will submit a report of an investigation to the agency that details the
findings of our investigation,” OIG spokesman Jeff Lagda said in
response to queries.
“The agency, not the OIG, will then determine what administrative
action they may take against the employee based on that report,” Lagda
said. “The EPA will have to report to the OIG what administrative action
the EPA will undertake.”
Which, put bluntly, is a big fucking joke. At worst he'll be pushed to take early retirement(with full benefits, of course); at least they'll transfer the idiot to another office where he can continue to enjoy his virtual immunity from being held responsible.
And we're supposed to trust ANY of these bastards. About anything...
1 comment:
20-25 yrs ago I read a piece of fiction which named the EPA as the prime antagonist which was prosecuting individual citizens for what then seemed barely plausible actionable offences. However, imagine an agency full of people doing nothing but thinking up new regulations of which the citizens would be found in violation. Now give that agency basically carte blanche authority over all the land, water, and of course the people. That authority would extend to the agency making it's own policies and regulations and enforcement (to every capacity) of those regulations.
Our silence is condonation of those actions of government. Any action of the people which falls short of reining in the agency is but a step up from that condonation. If we fail to restrict the agency it only becomes more bold and entrenched.
I had been very opposed to Ed Abbey and his acts of sabotage. However, this government has grown too big, too powerful, and, more telling, has adopted an attitude of lording over the people as if the people are subservient. IOW, I have changed my position as they (agencies) brought it upon themselves. It is within the power of the people to demand accountability of the gov (of agencies and individuals within those agencies) and by whatever force made necessary to ensure compliance to the will of the people per the US Constitution.
Congress is complicit. The unconstitutional power grab of these expanding, mission creeping agencies has been largely ignored by Congress. The rule of law has been supplanted by unelected, unidentified gov moles who rule by policy and regulation, basically, by fiat.
Acts of substantial, purposeful disobedience is required. Said acts shall be designed to hold accountable the agencies through action against individuals within those agencies. For the agency is composed of individuals therefore any punitive action should work to the individual basis. Any such action shall include whatever force necessary to ensure accountability and to reacquire tranquility and peace. Less than that is an abridgment of the rights of the people.
This is not insurrection of the gov, it is action against those individuals within the gov which have subverted our constitutional gov.
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