OPINION/COMMENTARY

Leavitt Versus the Leviathan

Mike Leavitt deserves to be confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, not so much because he's a famous consensus-builder but because, in trying to be one as governor of Utah, he learned that environmental organizations can never, ever be satisfied.
Knowing this, as incoming EPA administrator, Leavitt is relieved of two burdens: first, of spending too much time trying to satisfy a constituency - the largely left-wing environmentalist movement - that can never be pleased, and, second, of the expectation that he'll ever get credit from environmentalists for doing any good, even if he does a top-notch job.
As Ronald Reagan used to say, there's no limit to the good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit. Or, as is inevitable in this case, the blame...

The Mounting Threat of Eco-Terrorism

As we combat Islamic terrorism abroad, we must recognize the deadly threat posed by a homegrown source--one that since 1997 has been responsible for over 600 attacks and has inflicted more than $100 million in property damage. The attacks have become bolder, fiercer: in August a 206-unit apartment complex near San Diego was firebombed, resulting in $50 million in damage. And just days ago, also in San Diego, four upscale homes under construction were torched.
This growing danger is: environmental terrorism. It is time that we reflect on the scale of the danger we face--and the ideology behind that menace.
From Alabama to Michigan, from Pennsylvania to California, underground cells of eco-terrorists have been waging a campaign of tree-spiking, industrial sabotage, arson and bombing. Last year the most prominent eco-terrorist group, the Earth Liberation Front, proudly claimed responsibility for more than 130 attacks. What is their goal? According to the ELF, our Westernized way of life "comes at the expense of . . . the natural environment." By seeking a safer, longer, happier life--by seeking more than a bare, primitive subsistence--mankind, they say, is guilty of crimes against nature. Accordingly, they wish "to inflict economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment"--hoping eventually "to speed up the collapse of industry."...

American terrorism, environment-style

Terrorists are loose in America. Eco-terrorists. In August radical environmentalists apparently burned down an apartment complex under construction in San Diego.
A couple of weeks later eco-terrorists attacked four SUV dealerships in West Covina, a Los Angeles suburb. Federal agents have arrested for the crime a 25-year-old member of an organization supposedly dedicated to peace and environmentalism.
These attacks were likely perpetrated by the Environmental Liberation Front, which has boasted of committing arson and bombings. Early last year ELF issued "an open call for direct action." It later took responsibility for torching a Forest Service lab in Pennsylvania...