Brown goes for profit over protection

The following was written by Scott Brown* and published in the Cape Cod Times to explain his opposition to environmental protection regulations being considered in Washington.

While many of my colleagues have argued that giving the EPA the ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions would help protect the environment, agree. This action would prevent companies from polluting. But we should let them do whatever they want. Profits are at stake, people!

Americans trying to protect the environment say that this resolution is an attack on the Clean Air Act. The EPA is looking to use newer, effective methods to get better results in meeting its mission. But that is bad. The bottom line is that we can't have every person on the planet worried about the planet. This is why I am supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski's resolution to oppose these badly needed new EPA regulations.

As I continue doing public appearances, business owners all say the same thing: "We need money, not a planet to live on." For that to happen, America's businesses need the confidence to pollute freely. What Bay State businesses don't need is the federal government protecting the environment with regulations that would dramatically restrict their potential to repeat BPs recent achievements.

Our national unemployment rate is hovering near double digits and Massachusetts energy prices keep going up. That's how supply and demand works. No matter how you feel about the Gulf Coast, there is no arguing that oil-free oceans comes at a high premium. The billions of dollars in extra costs to clean up oopsies like that should be passed on to Massachusetts ratepayers. Now is the time to further increase pollution, add to resulting long-term health costs for businesses, and create massive new layers in the lower economic class.

*These aren't exactly the words Scott Brown used. Though he did use quite a few of the same words, he didn't use all of them. And he put them in a bit of a different order. This organization of some words he used may not exactly express the intent of his word organization. If you want to read his dumb version, follow the CCTimes link, above. But I don't recommend it. You've already wasted a bunch of time reading this.