Back in 2012, Nancy Pelosi attacked Republicans for having “an ideology [that says] we shouldn’t have a government role.” She went on, “And I say to them, ‘Do you have children who breathe air? Do you have grandchildren who drink water?’ … [I]f you could depend on the government for one thing it was that you had to be able to trust the water that our kids drank and the food that they ate. But this is the E. coli club. They do not want to spend money to do that.” Which brings us to the EPA spilling three million gallons of toxic waste in Colorado, wreaking havoc on a river system that flows in three states and is critical for the Navajo Nation. The American Action Forum estimates the cleanup will cost a bundle. “If we were to trust past agency estimates: between $338 million and $27.7 billion.” That’s quite a range because “[t]here is no direct precedent for the toxic Animas River spill.” Sam Batkins, American Action Forum’s regulatory affairs director, cautioned, “I think it is more likely to be in the millions [than billions] because the high-end figures are based off of oil spills in the Arctic (a close comparison), however the total volume for this is less than the average major oil spill.”

Regardless of the cost, does anyone doubt that such a spill during a Republican administration would yield ‘round the clock Leftmedia coverage? But because Barack Obama “cares about the environment,” they’re content to look the other way. Just don’t tell Nancy Pelosi the government ruined some drinking water.