EPA? Ever heard of the Santa Susana laboratory? In the 50s, they had a reactor meltdown 30 miles WNW from downtown LA, and burned barrels of rad waste, again in open air. The prevailing winds blow towards LA of course.
How about the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland being so polluted with oil and solvents that its surface caught fire? Love Canal? Dioxin waste dump sold off to build a school and houses.
Anyone who believes that private industry will regulate itself enough to keep a clean environment is kidding him/herself.
Department of Energy exists largely to regulate nuclear power in the US. Do we really want to end up with private industry building reactors to the cheapest spec? When that happens, see also: Chernobyl.
All those industries might need reforming (in particular bringing EPA and EU auto standards into line so world-market cars can be sold in US), but they’re useful.
