Barbara Boxer’s long goodbye

I can't honestly say I'll miss Senator Barbara Boxer, even though I shared the same ZIP code for a couple of decades.  In fact, I'm delighted to see her go.  She was a crashing disaster as a lawmaker.  This woman did more to destroy the environment in California (and across the country) than even Al Gore when she muscled through the Clean Air Act amendment in 1999 mandating gasoline additives supposedly designed to "clean the air."

What we got was MTBE pumped into our tanks, spewing out our tailpipes, which did nothing to clean the air.  It did have an effect, though.  MTBE poisoned hundreds of water systems across the state.  The additive traveled from the pumps into wells, plumes, and holding tanks.

When the junior senator was confronted about the massive destruction statewide, Boxer's response was a shrugged "oh, well; we tried." 

Thirty thousand KSFO radio listeners gathered on the west steps of the state capitol in Sacramento demanding a change.  The late Senator Richard Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) and activist Jodi Waters, a housewife from Modesto, helped lead us.

"Can you hear us now?" was our full-throated roar to the frightened assembly of lawmakers as they peered down from their upper-tier balconies of the state capitol building.

I testified twice before the California legislature, where I and others were called "liars, wackos, kooks, and right-wing nuts."

All of this was done in the name of environmentalism...certainly not in the spirit of science.  Senator Boxer's legacy has already been written, no matter what liberals say in their praise.  She cost California billions in remediation of the poisoned water, jeopardized the health of our citizens and then flippantly dismissed us when she was proven wrong.

Teach your children that environmentalism from the government isn't always a good thing.  (I'm talking to you, Ivanka.)

Melanie Morgan is an author, journalist, and former radio talk show host in San Francisco, Calif.

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