I was nice in this brief on the Landfill legislation currently before the General Assembly. Apparently the SB 1492 is still in play, but SB6 has passed. It’s effectively an addendum to SB 1492. Anyway, there is stuff I’d like to say, but couldn’t in the context of the brief:
First, this is all about Basnight and a couple of other eco-legislators with a bad case of NIMBY syndrome ("not in my backyard"). This whole legislation was born out of the fact that they didn’t like interest by waste management companies in building large landfills in eastern NC. (There are actual markets in this stuff which helps people, you know, earn a livelihood.) They are wielding state power (and stripping county power) essentially to institutionalize their own aesthetic preferences. But its not their property.
Second, the environmental lobby – in typical fashion – is trying to convince everyone that landfills are dangerous. They smell — yes. And this is what nuisance cases are for. But the only two questionable substances landfills release are methane (a greenhouse gas, yes, but fewer emissions are released than the carbon that will be spewed by all these @%*&ing recycling trucks) and leachate. Modern landfills contain leachate so well that the risks of contamination are almost 0. The EPA doesn’t even regulate them. THEY DON’T NEED TO. Show me one shred of evidence showing that landfills are a) dangerous and b) need to be regulated by the state instead of the counties. (NOTE: if landfills were harming people, I’d be the first to say they should be sued and, if liable, ordered to cease all activity. But this is all ecomythology in action.)
Third, this bill will hurt both business and government. It will raise the costs of everything — including schools and gov’t offices. And the proceeds will go to "recycling." Nevermind all this garbage (no pun) about not being able to construct landfills within x miles of a forest. All the regulators have to do is call a patch of three trees a "forest". It’s a big sham, this bill — attenuated as it as been. Some waste mgmt companies have threatened to pull out of the entire southeast because of this. I hope they do. I wouldn’t do business in this state, either. This General Assembly continues to prove its elitism, its hatred of markets, and its thirst for accreting power. (Yes, I’m mad as hell.)
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