WTF, I say! This is being linked across the freeposphere.
But then I saw the source; it's a study from the American Enterprise Lie Kitchen Institute.
Just a reminder to all that when you get beyond the packaging the truth isn't far below the surface....
Your freeper friends will post this quote gleefully:
"Pick any category you want and pollution levels are generally lower than they were seven years ago," said Steven Hayward, the policy analyst who authored the report, titled "Index of Leading Environmental Indicators," for the conservative think tank.
"(Environmental groups) said air pollution was out of control, but this was always more about politics than it was fact," Hayward said.
But... Fox News (amazingly) included some of the Paul Harvey Rest Of The Story immediately following. (Your friends won't quote that part):
Environmental groups agree that tremendous progress has been made since the 1980s, when cities like Houston and Los Angeles were thick with smog and acid rain devastated lakes and forests across the U.S.
Amazingly, they included yet more balance fracking reality:
(The sky is definitely falling.)
"The reason we've had success over the last 40 years is because strong laws like the Clean Air Act work on pollution," said John Walke, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"But we have a long way to go. We've learned more. The science is better today than it was in 1980 or 1990. We now know we need stronger definitions of clean air to truly protect Americans.
"Over 150 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy air," Walke said. "If we can pass effective laws, we can reduce the problem."
In an e-mailed statement, the EPA said that it has seen success by a number of measures, but there are still key areas of the country "not meeting EPA's air quality standards."
It turns out Hayward isn't half as bad as the Fox headlines suggest (I realize that isn't really news either):
"Mostly of it's technological change. Quite a bit of it's been forced by regulation, but a lot of it has been the marketplace," Hayward said. "The EPA has models that project an 80 percent decline in auto emissions. Nothing Bush could have done was going to change that."
Maybe this will make Olbermann's WTF tonight.