True story: A few days ago I went into a women's clothing store to buy a couple of T-shirts. As I was standing at the counter paying my bill, the clerk decided to make small talk. "Do you work in Washington" she asked. "Who do you work for?"

I answered, "I work for the oil industry."Her friendly demeanor faded. She put my purchase in a bag and had nothing more to say.

The clerk is one of many, many Americans who are troubled by the Deepwater Horizon accident. The leaking well in the Gulf and the tar balls on the beaches have had a major impact on America's collective psyche. But the clerk didn't take out her consternation on me. She didn't charge me more than other customers or slap an extra tax on my purchase. That would have been unfair and unlawful.

Some members of Congress, however, ar... more »

Whoever wrote the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recent news release calling for the reinstatement of the Superfund tax deserves an award for clever--and very misleading--writing.

The release states that if the Superfund tax were reinstated, polluters would have to pay for their messes and money would no longer be transferred from the General Fund, "thus burdening the taxpayer with the costs of cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste sites."

Quoting an EPA official, the release also says:

"Our taxes should be paying teachers, police officers and infrastructure that is essential for sustainable growth--not footing the bill for polluters."

There's no question that polluters should be held responsible for their errors. But the news release plays fast-and-loose with the facts.

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