The EPA has brought surface mining to a halt in Appalachia, allegedly to protect the Mayfly. In surface mining, the miners put the rock and dirt in the surrounding areas or valleys. When water flows through these areas, it can become saltier. The salt may be harmful to Mayflies. It is not harmful to humans.
What’s a Mayfly? It’s a tiny insect that lives in a larvae stage in water for as long as three years. As an adult, it has no usable mouth and usually lives no longer than three hours. The females reproduce during that brief time and then die. In short, these are essentially worthless insects.
To the EPA and the environmentalists, however, the existence of the Mayfly is excuse enough to shut down coal mining in one area of our nation. Lisa Jackson and Obama are willing to sacrifice an abundant source of energy to protect a bug that lives only three hours to lay more eggs.
Ah, but there’s more.In Nebraska, environmentalists are busy protecting the American burying beetle from the evils of the Keystone XL pipeline. The burying beetle (Nicorphorus americanus) in Nebraska makes its home in the Sand Hills – a route contemplated by the TransCanada corporation for the pipeline.
Because of the beetle, the TransCanada corp. is overhauling its plans so it can avoid the beetle habitat. The company had originally agreed to pledge $2 million to encourage ranching practices that protected the beetles or to purchase land that would be managed for the beetles.
Wyatt Hoback, a University of Nebraska biology professor was actually hired by TransCanada to work with his students to trap and move 2,400 beetles from the original pipeline path, which cut across 100 miles of the Sand Hills.
Hoback’s relocation project for burying beetles was covered on “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel.
Imagine this: Three environmental groups actually filed a federal lawsuit challenging the relocation program for these endangered beetles! Apparently, it’s not even permissible to move a bug from where they live to a safe location where they won’t be crushed by bulldozers.
The burying beetle’s Sand Hills home is safe from the evil pipeline.
Once TransCanada locates another route through Nebraska, rest assured that some bug-loving lunatic will find yet another bug, mouse, tic, plant or endangered rock formation to protect from the wicked energy producers.
And, you can expect that the EPA will jump on whatever excuse it can find to stop energy production in the U.S. It is clear that Lisa Jackson and her radical allies love bugs more than humans.