Top of the morning

Environment, schmironment. That was the message from the majority of the members of the Senate Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday.

The committee approved a proposal by Senator Charlie Alberston that would shut down the Environmental Management Commission for a year, prohibiting the commission from adopting any rules or regulations to protect the state’s drinking water supply, air quality, or park lands.

Albertson is upset that the commission is holding public hearings about a proposal that would require hog farmers to take water samples from nearby creeks and streams to check for contamination from the farms.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told the committee that Albertson’s bill would delay requests from six local governments seeking to expand their water supply, halt work on regulations about unclaimed water and buffer zones for development and shut down work on a host of other important environmental issues.

Despite the objections of Senators Ellie Kinnaird and Joe Sam Queen, the committee approved Albterson’s ridiculous proposal after a round of cheerleading for the plan from Republicans, happy to have an opportunity to rail against government, with Senator Andrew Brock suggesting that it was time to look at permanently scaling back the EMC.

Who needs clean water to drink and clean air to breathe anyway?