http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_go_ot/coal_ash

Ok people. This story is a perfect example of a situation where I believe the federal government indeed has the obligation to regulate industry. As I keep saying, the federal government should provide.... defense, interstate highways, mail, environmental protection..... that's it.

But when I say environmental protection, I'm talking about maintaining the natural order and not leaving behind a bunch of carcinogens or an eroded landscape. I am NOT talking about how much freakin' CO2 my car emits. Global warming, as Al Gore sees it, where CO2 is a greenhouse gas that will eventually snowball our planet into another Venus, is A BUNCH OF CRAP. It was a theory when I was a kid and now that they've poured so much money into it they feel like they have to stick with their original story or otherwise they'll be thought frauds.

Anyway, back to the coal ash and heavy metals. This is definitely something to try and mitigate. Pollutants getting into water supplies is definitely something I will fight hard against, whether it's saving the tadpoles or saving the humans that get cancer from their groundwater.