Why Trump Right on CA Wildfires: "Green Policies" Burning Golden State to a Crisp
Matthew Vadum writes at Frontpagemag.com:
Trump is right -- at least in a big-picture way -- and his critics are wrong.
Years ago environmentalist lobbies ideologically opposed to economic growth put the screws to California's once-thriving wood-harvesting industry. New federal and state regulations came into effect make it increasingly difficult for the industry to operate.
"As a result, timber industry employment gradually collapsed, falling in 2017 to half of what it was 20 years earlier, with imports from Canada, China, and other nations filling domestic need," Chuck DeVore, Vice President of National Initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, writes at Forbes.
As timber harvesting permit fees rose and environmental regulations intensified, industry employees left the field and "[t]he combustible fuel load in the forest predictably soared," according to DeVore.
“No longer were forest management professionals clearing brush and thinning trees."
"With all that kindling piling up on forest floors," Vadum continues, "today's devastating wildfires were not hard to foresee."
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