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EPA Needs to Enforce, Not Create Law

The Environmental Protection Agency plays a vital role in making sure the ecosystem remains balanced and is kept safe from harmful toxins and chemicals.

West Virginia has a unique perspective on the damage caused by careless companies and their willingness to put profits above public and environmental safety. The EPA can and must intervene in these cases. The agency's mission, however, should be above partisan dogma and ideology. 

The EPA needs to enforce the code, not conjure laws out of thin air. However EPA leaders, especially under the current presidential administration, have been playing fast and loose with the rules. As well intentioned as they might be, they need to understand the consequences of their actions. 

It's easy for someone in Washington, D.C., to expound about the importance of protecting the environment, but it's something else when an agency's decision strips away jobs and marginalizes entire communities. 

Extractive industries are not always pretty, and we've seen what happens when regulators fail to do their jobs, but the EPA is not an elected body. They must enforce the law, not create or alter it to suit their own ideas.