EPA Celebrates 40th With “Environmental Movement”

The scandal-plagued federal agency that recently launched a multi million-dollar “environmental justice” movement to help minority communities get green is celebrating its 40^th birthday this week with a national tour to advance more of its costly leftwing programs.

Four decades after it was created to protect the environment and human health, there is little to celebrate about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which has become a symbol of President Obama’s big government crusade. In fact, earlier this year the EPA launched a public relations campaign touting all the positives of big government and increased federal regulations.

To fulfill its mission of extensive government intervention, the EPA’s budget surged 34% in Obama’s first year to a whopping $10.3 billion. The figure includes $43 million for efforts to reduce greenhouse gases that the agency claims “endanger” public health.

Nearly half of the EPA’s budget goes to grants that fund state environmental programs, nonprofits and educational institutions that help promote the agency’s agenda. Last month nearly $2 million in “environmental justice grants” went to dozens of leftwing community groups that will help poor, minority and indigenous people increase recycling, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization,” participate in “green jobs” training and avoid heat stroke.

As part of its 40^th birthday celebration EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson will tour the nation to promote similar programs as well as “the unfinished business of the environmental movement.” The weeklong party will highlight the impact of the agency’s efforts to clean up the air Americans breathe, the water they drink and the communities they live in.

It’s safe to bet that there will be no mention of how the EPA actually endangered Americans by covering up a chemical’s serious health hazards at the request of powerful lobbyists. The household chemical (Bisphenol A) is used to make hard, clear plastic and has been banned in several states after hundreds of scientific studies deemed it unsafe. After Jackson publicly denounced the chemical’s cancer-causing threats and negative affects on brain development, she still caved into industry pressure and kept it off the EPA’s hazard list.