Money is always behind this sort of thing, and it's not necessarily Dem or Rep money, both sides are equally guilty of basing policy decisions on how many jobs, dollars, or campaign contributions are involved. The environmental organizations that were exposed as favoring this travesty deserve to be criticized for putting their hobbies above the public welfare, but the seed of this idea has been around since the Reagan/Hodel years, and was probably being refined through every administration since. This is not a tree-hugger project, this is bi-partisan pork.

We really need to get out of this idea of ideological purity and start concentrating on the individual issues. While left and right are engaged in sophistries, the lawyers, politicians and businessmen are stealing us both blind.