With Alaska's Pebble Partnership, The EPA Waves the Precaution Flag | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary

With Alaska's Pebble Partnership, The EPA Waves the Precaution Flag | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary: " The Assessment is designed to be used for regulation based upon the “precautionary principle”. This darling of the global left states that “if something has the potential to cause harm, it shouldn’t be done”. The UN’s a big fan and reports are that they have been sniffing around parts of Bristol Bay looking for a way to get in on the Pebble issue. In fact, its Framework Convention on Climate Change—the scaffold upon which the failed Kyoto Protocol on global warming was erected-is based on the precautionary principle, noting that a lack “full scientific certainty” should not provide grounds to preclude regulation."

How could they travel there to do research when the travel causes harm? What doesn't have "the potential to cause harm"?

"Under the precautionary principle, there is simply no way that antibiotics would ever have been marketed, had scientists had known of the potential for bacteria to mutate into resistant strains. There would be no airplanes or cars (they can and will crash, you know). Even today, New Jersey and Oregon won’t let you pump gas because your car could explode (and the price of gas must therefore go up)."

"Wouldn’t it be a shame if the cost of slamming Pebble shut was to price hybrids even more out of the market?"