American bloggers tend to think the EPA and other federal agencies are swamped by an environmentalist soup and yet fracking has taken off big time over there and within a few years the States will be energy independent – to the heartache of the likes of Venezuela and their supporters over here. The Great Satan is indeed a devious collection of people as Obama, in spite of his Green credentials, has given the go-ahead to a new pipeline to bring Shale Oil from Canada to the States. Over here in Europe they are huffing and puffing about refusing to accept oil from the tar sands of Alberta – and we are far from independent in energy.
Just to wind up the Greens we may also note the rather tame environmentalist strictures over there regarding Frankenstein foods, as GMO foods are grown and consumed on a daily basis. Now, the EPA does have some means to poke its fingers in the spokes of everyday comings and goings as the States have an obligatory amount of biofuels mixed in with their fossil fuels – and this in spite of the fact it has ruined a lot of old engines and is troublesome to say the least. However, the bite of the EPA is limited when contrasted with the bureaucratic nightmare that the European Union has developed into, and Frankinstein food is the centre of a very emotional debate at the moment. The US and EU are negotiating a free trade agreement – but it is blocked at the moment as the States agricultural produce includes genetically modified plants that are part of the everyday food chain over there. Over here the environmentalist lobby has been successful in thwarting the uptake of GMOs -see http://phys.org/print294635488.html.
It seems the American politicos are more pragmatic than their European counterparts – who appear to have been hounded into submission by the Greens, over a variety of issues that have been exaggerated and subject to deception.