Letter: Regulations keep us safe – InForum

We’ve gotten used to the idea that eating at the grocery store is safe, and we know that our boss has workplace rules to follow. While they grumble, most of us appreciate the restrictions on the oil and coal industries and what they have to do to minimize air and soil pollution, and the restrictions on mega-farms and food processors and what they have to do to minimize toxins in the water they dump into nearby rivers.

The long-standing principle of the U.S. Supreme Court is that they defer to decisions that have come before them, but that tradition was overturned a few days ago. The Supreme Court ruled that its original principle, which gave deference to scientists in federal oversight agencies when the law was unclear, should be thrown out. Instead, Congress must determine, or judges must decide on a case-by-case basis, whether hog manure running off a hog farm into a river is a problem. Your right to strike and protect yourself may be at risk (seriously, we don’t know). The safety protocols at your child’s or grandchild’s daycare may no longer apply. A new strain of bacteria that is not specified in the law and should result in a food recall doesn’t result in a recall at all and instead could make us all sick.

The “regulations” have long been portrayed by the Republican Party as a bad thing, but seriously, they were always intended to keep us safe. Now, for no good reason, the Supreme Court has said that the wisdom of scientists and experts should be ignored. The “regulations” have kept us safe, at least so far.

Jeffrey Powell lives in Grand Forks.