The Everett Herald had a great editorial recently on concerns about better water quality standards:
Beckett-like absurdity was on display at Monday’s press conference with leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers. They, like many union honchos, said they worry that a rejiggering of Washington’s fish-consumption rate and water-quality standards will threaten jobs. So says Boeing and assorted industries. Never underestimate the power of industry fear-mongering over an unknown known.
“We want clean water but we believe this is just too extreme,” Greg Pallesen, international vice president of the paper workers union, said about the non-existent, updated standards. “We can have great intentions on this stuff but the extreme (policy) will have a negative impact on jobs.” Specifics on the nonexistent weren’t forthcoming.
But nothing focuses the mind like “job loss.”