How About A Little Perspective EPA?

The EPA has just published a list of "Most Wanted Eco-Terrorists".

At first I thought good, they are going after the real eco-terrorists whose acts of violence have killed people.

No. They are going after polluters. Stupid EPA.

Now some of these polluters are doing terrible things and should be brought to justice, no doubt about it. Like this jerk:

Raul Chavez-Beltran, another fugitive on the list, ran an environmental cleanup company in El Paso, Texas, that is accused of transporting hazardous waste from factories along the Mexican border and improperly disposing and storing it in the U.S. In one case, he allegedly stockpiled mercury-laced soil from an environmental spill in a warehouse.

But other "most wanted eco-terrorists" are kinda lame. For example:

Also at large are the father and son team of Carlos and Allesandro Giordano, who were arrested in 2003 as the owners of Autodelta USA, a company that was illegally importing and selling Alfa Romeos that did not meet U.S. emission or safety standards. The two men are believed to be hiding out in Italy.

Yes, the high volume of non-safety standard Alfa Romeos clogging our streets is directly responsible for the (mild to nonexistant) smog over our cities.

I mean come on, a little perspective here. This excellent article by Bryan Denson of the Oregonian via Rick Ross shows what real eco-terrorists are doing.

Eco-terrorism escalated across the nation in the late 1990s. Underground saboteurs, claiming to act on behalf of the natural world, repeatedly struck such enterprises as logging, skiing, genetic research, home building and auto sales. They are suspected in 69 major attacks since January 1999, including 14 in the Pacific Northwest, The Oregonian found in an ongoing analysis of the crimes.

But serious cases of eco-terrorism took a precipitous plunge after July 16, when the Earth Liberation Front set fire to an oil company building in suburban Detroit. Since then, eco-terrorists have been tied to just six major crimes, compared to 21 during the same period last year. The last major act of eco-terrorism in the United States occurred more than two months ago, when the Earth Liberation Front set fire to a genetic research center under construction at the University of Minnesota, causing $630,000 damage.

Polluting is wrong and should be punished. But violence, and mayhem are worse.