Tag Archives: overregulation

Environmental Regulations and Wind Turbines Are Backing New England Fishermen into a Corner

Just three weeks ago, Jerry Leeman was a commercial fishing captain in New England and a very successful one at that. Now, as executive director of the newly formed New England Fishermen Stewardship Association, he’s leading the charge against Biden administration policies that threaten the industry he loves, including overregulation and wind-turbine development in the Gulf of Maine. Leeman said that he and fellow New England fishermen have serious concerns about the accuracy of the NOAA data. Fish-population assessments fell to the wayside during the Covid years — 2021 and 2022 — and the data-collection process has not yet been corrected. “Whether you’re a lobsterman or a ground fisherman, a trend up and down the coast here is that nobody wants wind turbines placed in our environment. It’s going to mess up our stocks and our species. Not to mention it’s going to change the viability for generations to come in the fishing grounds,” Leeman said. Photos, >click to read< 07:51

Scituate’s tribute to fishermen should be wake-up call of industry’s troubles

AR-160707802.jpg&MaxW=650&MaxH=650It is often said, “All politics is local;” a phrase that is often associated with former Speaker of the House from Massachusetts Tip O’Neil. The phrase is appropriate for the re-dedication of the Scituate town pier on Friday, June 24. The event, hosted by the Town of Scituate and The Scituate Harbor Cultural District, not only recognized the extensive renewal of the pier and the public servants that shepherded the project through the political funding process, but importantly also recognized the fishing families that make their living by operating the small fishing businesses that remain in Scituate. Sadly, there are only three groundfish boats in Scituate these days. As Mirarchi explained, the law that protected the industry from foreign vessels has become the biggest challenge to the fishing industry. “In reality, fishermen are challenged more by an inflexible regulatory system than by a scarcity of fish,” he said. “We have transitioned from a no-holds-barred regime prior to 1976 to a cap and trade system where every pound of catch is counted and is deducted from an annual allocation.” In other words, overregulation is killing the local fishing industry. Read the article here 16:10

Opinion: A remedy for overregulation – Each government agency should answer to a board of directors

6_282016_b3-raquet8201_c0-1465-1800-2514_s885x516If the 2016 presidential election has proved anything so far, it’s that millions of Americans know something is seriously wrong in Washington and they want it fixed. They’re right. The fact is that needless regulations, gross mismanagement and outright fraud have crippled our economy, stifled businesses and choked off job creation. The federal government collects $3.5 trillion in taxes and then forces us to pay another $2 trillion in regulation costs — and then another $1 trillion in waste and fraud. The gross domestic product has only averaged 1.7 percent annual growth over the last 15 years compared to 3.5 percent over the previous 50 years. That’s why the middle class has not had a raise in 15 years. Read the rest here 10:46