Stop the Obama Regime and his EPA from taking our gun rights away! Sign and share our new petition!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yes, of course, the “regime” is using their national police force, the FBI, to … wait, the EPA?<\/em> What?<\/p>\n Dear Patriot,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Howdy! I appreciate being called a patriot.<\/p>\n The Obama Administration thugs are it again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When in doubt, call the other side “thugs.” \u00a0(Note, this is not strictly a right-wing thing. Zanies on either extreme use this term when the other side is in power and doing stuff they don’t like. Both sides like to prefix it with “jackbooted,” but the Far Right likes to use the term alone, just to evoke those Gang-Banging type of thugs.)<\/p>\n Turning up the heat on those who don\u2019t play ball, …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, requiring people to comply with the law is “turning up the heat” on folks who “don’t play ball.”<\/p>\n … the Obama Administration\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forcing the closure of the nation\u2019s last remaining lead smelting plant,\u00a0creating dire consequences for employees, their families and the millions of firearm owners across the country. We must continue to stand together against this tyranny!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Are they cackling and twirling their mustachios as they do so?<\/p>\n The nation\u2019s last remaining lead smelting plant provides lead for ammunition used in firearms nationwide. Without the lead, ammunition will become scarcer and costs will continue to rise- a turn of events that is sure to delight the gun-grabbing leftists in Washington. Do you want that to happen?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wow! Out of the blue, the EPA is trying to shut down a company vital for our home defense industry? \u00a0The fiends! \u00a0Clearly this is a back door avenue to rendering the populace helpless!<\/p>\n Operating like old-school thugs, …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Are those the ones who wear black uniforms or the ones who wear black hoodies? \u00a0Just checking.<\/p>\n … the EPA has demanded the Doe Run Company, which has operated for more than a century, pay $65 million to be in compliance with the EPA\u2019s restrictions and also pay a $7 million civil penalty. The EPA laughably gloats that Doe Run has made a \u201cbusiness decision\u201d to close down the plant, leaving the plant\u2019s 218 employees and contractors out of work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The bastards! What possible reason could the EPA have for forcing a century-old company out of business, other than to make it impossible to own guns and to throw hundreds of valuable American workers out of their jobs? The end of a lead-laced era: polluting smelter to close after 120 years | KBIA<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u00a0Herculaneum, Mo., a small town on the bluffs above the Mississippi River, was always a company town. \u00a0The company, Doe Run, is the largest lead producer in North America, trucking in lead from Missouri’s rich mines to a 120-year-old smelter on the river. \u00a0For 25 years, the smelter didn’t meet federal air standards for lead, and now, after decades of battling government regulators and angry parents, Doe Run is leaving town at the end of next year.<\/em><\/p>\n […] For one thing, there was this thick dust on the streets where the trucks drove in from the lead mines. […] \u00a0The Department of Natural Resources test came back: the dust from the streets in Herculaneum contained 300,000 parts per million lead. That’s 30 percent. […]\u00a0Within a quarter mile, 56 percent of kids [6 and under] had high levels of lead in their blood. At a half-mile, it was 52 percent. Jordan-Izaguirre says she\u2019d never seen numbers like that, except in the developing world.<\/em><\/p>\n […]\u00a0In 1988, Doe Run was fined for 177 health violations at the plant \u2013 accused of breaking “virtually every section” of the workplace lead standard. […]\u00a0In 2002, Doe Run and state and federal regulators decided it was easier to get rid of the people than the pollution: the company agreed to buy out the 160 homes closest to the smelter. […]\u00a0Around that same time in 2002, Doe Run met the Clean Air Act lead standard for the first time ever, since it was set in 1978. […] Despite all this, and even though the air was meeting federal standards, it was still recontaminating people’s yards with lead.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n […] By law, EPA is required to review the national ambient air quality standard for lead every five years to make sure it matches up with current science on public health. But Lipeles discovered the agency had never completed a full review. She filed a lawsuit against the EPA in 2004.\u00a0Four years later, the agency\u00a0released a new national lead standard<\/a>. It was ten times more restrictive than the old one, dropping from 1.5 micrograms lead per cubic meter, to 0.15 micrograms. Doe Run agreed to close the smelter, rather than try to meet the new standard.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So a company that was responsible for massive environmental pollution did some stuff to clean up, but what they were doing was still dangerous (do I need to belabor the dangers of lead and other heavy metal pollution?), so they’ve decided to shut down rather than investing further to correct the problems. \u00a0That hardly seems radical, or thuggish.<\/p>\n And note when that new national lead standard was released (after lengthy work by the EPA): in 2008<\/strong>, distinctly not<\/em> during the “Obama Regime,” but during that tree-hugging, gun-hating Bush Administration.<\/p>\n Oh, and in case you’re worried that this is some innocuous Mom & Pop company being oppressed by the Man for harmless mistakes …<\/p>\n The $65 million fine decried by the letter, by the way? It’s not just related to the smelter being shut down, but for a raft of other issues. 10\/08\/2010: North America\u2019s Largest Lead Producer to Spend $65 Million to Correct Environmental Violations at Missouri Facilities<\/a>:<\/p>\n (Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 8, 2010) – Doe Run Resources Corp. of St. Louis, North America\u2019s largest lead producer, has agreed to spend approximately $65 million to correct violations of several environmental laws at 10 of its lead mining, milling and smelting facilities in southeast Missouri, the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced today. The settlement also requires the company to pay a $7 million civil penalty.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The release from the EPA goes through the various pieces of what that’s about and what it covers. None of it strikes me as particularly vindictive or thuggish. Back to the Tea Party:<\/p>\n Is this the \u201chope\u201d and \u201cchange\u201d America signed on for? The Obama Administration, having been thwarted in their efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights time and time again by principled gun owners, have now tasked the EPA with doing their dirty work by making ammunition scarcer and more expensive.\u00a0Enough is enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So is this the Death of Ammunition in the United States? \u00a0Um … not so much. For example,\u00a0Sierra Responds: How Will the Closure of the Lead Smelting Plant Affect Sierra Bullets? | Sierra Bullets<\/a>:<\/p>\n The main question asked is \u201cWill this shut down your supply of lead.\u201d The answer to that is no. First, Sierra buys lead from several different vendors to maintain constant supply. Second, this facility only smelts primary lead or lead ore. This is lead ore that has just been brought out of the earth. Sierra uses no primary lead at all and never has, so we use nothing directly from this facility. The lead we buy from Doe Run comes from their recycling facility in Boss, MO that is about 90 miles away from the smelter that is closing.<\/em><\/p>\n Our supply should not be in jeopardy and we do not anticipate any changes in our supply chain at this time. Could the lack of primary lead create a little more demand for recycled lead? Sure, but how much is unknown. Could this increase in demand also create an increase in price? Sure, but again, by how much is unknown at this time.<\/em><\/p>\n There are many other primary lead smelters in the world and so the flow of primary lead will not be shut off.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So a company that’s been responsible for lead pollution at multiple locations in the US and abroad is closing one of their smelters in response to pollution regulations put forward during the Bush Administration, and this will have little to no effect on ammunition supplies. Clearly nothing demonstrating\u00a0a Deep, Dark Conspiracy to Take Away Our Ammo by the Obama Regime Thugs.<\/p>\n Like the IRS, the EPA has become an enforcer in the Obama regime and it\u2019s time for them to go. While maintaining protections for the environment remain important, the EPA\u2019s heavy-handed tactics prove that they are not protectors of the environment, but enforcers of the leftist agenda. We must send a message that we will not be intimidated! Join the fight and sign the petition calling for the defunding of the EPA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, that certainly makes sense. Or, more likely, not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
![\"Lead!](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Doe-Run-ingots.jpg\" "\\"Doe")
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