Public overwhelmingly opposes drilling on Coloradan plateau, say activists 1

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   Wolverine Posted 3:36 am
   28 Nov 2007

   Public Opinion Doesn't Usually Matter ...when it comes to agency decisions like this one.  This is not supposed to be a popularity contest.  The reason for requesting and responding to public comments, aside from the legal requirement to do so pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is to inform decision-makers of the potential significant environmental impacts of a project so they can make an informed decision.  Public opinion matters when people vote in elections, after which agency people are appointed by whoever wins the election (in this case, Bush).
   Yeah, right.  Requesting and reviewing comments on an agency proposal is a totally rigged process that almost never works the way it's supposed to due to the political proclivities of agency decision makers.  (The organic standard controversy of a few years ago was a rare exception, but only due to the extreme volume of responses and their lopsidedness against lowering organic standards.)  That's why environmentalists' only recourse is often in court.  Unfortunately, even there we are dealing with mostly Republican judges who think that money and business are more important than the environment.

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