Unintended Consequences

Allen Shirley: Law of unintended consequences

For too long, we as Americans have been held hostage by the liberal left and environmentalists involving our energy needs. Now, Ken Midkiff (Globe, May 25) of the Sierra Club conveniently denies that his kind have any more blame for our current energy mess than the average citizen. I say (lifting my arm above my head), “It’s a little late for the shoes, I’ll try to save my watch.”

Although Mr. Midkiff is correct that there is no “one” source to blame for this mess, it is absurd to act as if liberals in Congress and environmental groups have not led the pack in preventing America from attaining energy independence. The law of unintended consequences is the rule of the day in demonstrating the mess these groups have helped achieve.

More than a decade ago, environmental and liberal groups insisted that chemical agents must be added to gasoline to reduce emissions. Now we find these agents pollute ground water and had to be removed for public safety — the law of unintended consequences. Read More

The law of unintended consequences rears has reared it’s ugly head in several other areas as well. One of the reasons that we have seen such intense forest fires in the last several years is due to logging being stopped or slowed on public lands. The same thing will happen if grazing is stopped on public lands. Things like these need to be managed. It is imperative that we always look at cause and effect when making decisions such as drilling for oil in the United States.