The solutions agency - don't call it ESA because that acronym already is taken - would, in Newt's words, "encourage innovation, incentivize success and emphasize sound science and technology over bureaucracy, regulation, litigation, and restrictions on American energy."
In other words, the solutions agency would be a contrived combination of cheerleader, think tank, and a 1-877-ASK-NEWT advice line. Other than that, it wouldn't accomplish much. The U.S. has made enormous progress in cleaning up air and water quality over the past 40 years because there were regulatory drivers in place. Those drivers sent a price signal of sorts that pollution is a cost and that it was bad public policy to impose such costs on people whose permission to breathe and drink others' filth was neither sought nor received.
Newt's brainstorm hasn't been warmly embraced by other Republican eminences. Even James Inhofe, who can be counted on to scorch EPA with abandon over regulating greenhouse gas emissions, gave Newt's grand vision the brush-off in a Politico interview: "I don't know, I haven't seen what Newt's trying to do. We're going to have an Environmental Protection Agency. You can rename it, I suppose, but it should be a little more user-friendly than it is right now, and it will be after the next election."
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/republican/republican-epa-2011#ixzz1DJKUMo91
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