Fox Decides The EPA Is No Longer Necessary

Good news, everyone: America has eliminated pollution.

At least that would be your impression if you watched John Stossel and Steve Milloy on Fox yesterday.

Fox's Stossel said, “Thank goodness for the EPA. The air and water are cleaner than they used to be.” Following that, he declared that the EPA's purpose has been fulfilled:

STOSSEL: It's diminishing returns. They've done a wonderful job. Stop already. Stick a fork in it, and it's done.

Later on Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight, climate skeptic Steve Milloy said, “We have made tremendous environmental progress since 1970, but guess what? It's no longer 1970, it's 2011. Our environment is clean and safe. We do not need more environmental regulations,” which he called “a luxury.” Watch:

Of course, these claims are absurd and simply not true. The EPA's clean air regulations reportedly “prevented 160,000 premature deaths” in 2010 alone. Yet Stossel and Milloy seem to think it's simply no longer necessary to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths annually by regulating pollution.