Source:  SEPP

ACID TEST

by William Anderson
Published in Reason Magazine, January 1992

Although unpolluted by acid rain, this clearwater stream in Australia is highly acidic.

Some people don’t like what Edward Krug has to say about acid rain. That was apparent when he spoke at a seminar on the subject last April in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Krug, a soil scientist who had helped conduct a 10-year federal study of acid rain, spoke with some expertise. He told his audience that he and his fellow researchers on the National Acid Rain Precipitation Assessment Project had determined that acid rain was an environmental nuisance, not a catastrophe.

It was a message that environmentalists didn’t want to hear. One woman hissed at him, “You need to take a reality check.”

Unfortunately for Krug, she isn’t the only one who doesn’t like his ideas. Congress ignored NAPAP’s findings, and when Krug tried to point out that the federal government is forcing utilities to spend billions of dollars to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, a federal agency did everything in its power to keep the media from listening to him. Krug’s research has upset the plans of some of Washington’s most powerful bureaucrats, and they aren’t happy. Because of them, the 44-year-old Krug has experienced numerous reality checks. (more…)

Source:  Lew Rockwell.com

The New York Times and Lies about ‘Acid Rain’

by William L. Anderson

As one who often reads the Newspaper of the Ruling Class, the New York Times, I tend not to be surprised when the “Newspaper of Record” distorts the record. Furthermore, one could do nothing but write comments refuting the various economic fallacies and outright distortions that accompany each edition of the Grey Lady.

However, in a recent editorial, the NYT managed to distort the record so much that I find it hard even to know how to answer, except to say that some of us have not lost our memories of what happened 30 years ago. Entitled “Acid Rain 30 Years On,” the editorial starts with the following statement:

Just over 30 years ago, a skeptical Daniel Patrick Moynihan persuaded his Senate colleagues to approve a major study to see whether a relatively unknown phenomenon called acid rain was worth worrying about. The study, completed in 1990, showed that pollution blowing eastward from coal-fired power plants was killing off aquatic life. One-quarter of the Adirondacks’ 3,000 lakes and streams had become too acidic to support fish life, or were headed that way. (more…)