Resourceful Earth News, Will a Lloyd Dobler Economy Save Us?

Will a Lloyd Dobler economy save us? That’s the question being asked around the internet today and we can surely expect more of that sort of question as we are seeing more and more headlines of looming economic disaster, both nationally and globally. What is getting in the way of the United States creating, building, producing and hiring?

From Rick Manning at The Hill:

In Alaska, one of the most significant finds of copper, gold and molybdenum (hardens steel) in U.S. history was discovered. Yet almost a decade later — and more than $125 million of environmental and cultural studies later — the Pebble Mine is still being subjected to Environmental Protection Agency review. A review that is at best likely to demand that tens of millions more dollars be spent for additional studies encompassing an area roughly equal to the states of Maryland and New Jersey combined. All to open one mine and put 2,000 miners to work. To make matters worse, the ore won’t be processed in the U.S., because our domestic copper smelting capacity has been cut by about 60 percent in the past 20 years. More jobs lost largely on the altar of environmental regulation. This is just one of myriad examples of how our nation’s obsession with litigation and environmental regulation has turned us into a place where employers cannot afford to create jobs. It is cheaper and more profitable to do it elsewhere.

Just think about what this means for our economy! There are jobs that aren’t being created and minerals our country can’t use because of environmental regulations and law suits! Not to mention the tax-dollars that are being spent to impose the EPA reviews and regulations. Pebble Mine is just one of many around the country that are struggling under the weight of this bureaucratic nightmare. Not to mention that ‘We the People’ are suffering as a result of high unemployment rates and high energy costs while we have everything we need to solve these problems within our own borders.

This story is getting picked up around the internet. Glenn Reynolds picked it up from Kevin at Wizbang Blog. You can also see a take on the story from James Joyner at Outside the Beltway,  from Mark at Ordered Liberty and Blue Star Chronicles.

More input from Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook:

The American Dream is dying because none of the historical manufacturing, processing, buying and selling of the things that make our generous and hard-fought-and-died-for American world go-round can be done without a dishonest Union, and/or the job-killing “environmental review.” In the rare case when it can be made, bought and sold, government regulations make it impossible to make a living doing “the making” inside this country.

And from Jeff at Protein Wisdom:

“Welcome to the Lloyd Dobler economy” Well, you got your wish, Lloyd. But tell me, did you really think Diane Court would stick around forever with a washed up amateur kickboxer on food stamps who stopped running his boom box for fear his batteries would wind up in some landfill and poison the great greenblue orb? Lloyd. Lloyd, Lloyd all null and void. Lloyd.

Reprinted with the kind permission of Beth Shaw