EPA demonstrates common sense about spilt milk Re: “Oh, you mean THOSE dumb regulations….,” Beltway Confidential, Feb. 7
This opinion blog post gives Examiner readers the impression that the Environmental Protection Agency intends to regulate all small dairy farms as part of its work to prevent oil spills. This is incorrect.
EPA has already proposed excluding milk and milk product storage tanks from its spill prevention regulatory program. This common sense decision was announced months ago. Moreover, EPA has already stayed any compliance requirements pending final action this spring on the proposed permanent exclusion.
EPA stands with the president in his commitment to using common sense and transparency to review federal regulations. This commitment to transparency is precisely why EPA publicly announced its intention to delay compliance requirements for milk and milk product storage tanks in October 2010.
Mathy Stanislaus
Assistant administrator,
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Environmental Protection Agency
‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ will decimate military
Losing 32 percent of Marine and 21 percent of Army combat troops in battle would devastate our nation, but that is how many soldiers said they would definitely leave U.S. military service early if “don’t ask, don’t tell” were repealed. Right before Christmas, the “lame duck” Congress ended 232 years of military policy and 6,000 years of religious and moral training by repealing DADT, tacking this monumental change onto a small-business technology bill before the new Congress took office.
Allowing open homosexuals in our armed forces will require “reprogramming” of troops to erase the memory of prior military and religious tradition.
Our U.S. Constitution empowers Virginia to establish eligibility criteria for our state guard, so I introduced HB 2474 to maintain DADT for Virginia’s National Guard and stand with the majority of our troops who oppose repeal, according to a Pentagon study. All but two members of the House of Delegates Rules Committee voted against it despite excellent testimony by a retired brigadier general, two colonels and a constitutional law expert.
Delegates cited Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s warrantless speculation that federal funds might be cut, but congressional Republicans overwhelmingly opposed DADT repeal and Virginia already has different enlistment criteria from federal armed forces and hasn’t lost funds. Military readiness and effectiveness must be our concern, not social experimentation during wartime.
Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas
Virginia House of Delegates
Fairfax School Board has a lot of questions to answer
Many Fairfax County schools, children, families and businesses would be affected by the school board’s plan for monumental redistricting as a result of the South West Boundary Study, yet the board has yet to account for the additional transportation costs such a shift in bus routes would require. Where will this money come from?
We’ve heard that closing award-winning Clifton Elementary would create savings that would pay for additions at schools receiving many new students, full-day kindergarten and online standardized testing. If the school board already has plans to spend these dollars, how many times can the same dollars be spent?
How does decreasing the number of seats available at Clifton, and then creating capacity issues in other schools, address overcrowding in Fairfax County? And how many fewer schools would be affected were Clifton to remain open?
Jacquelyn Bullis
Clifton
