print Print Cartoon

Questions

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the federal government charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. Why does the cartoonist use a shark to represent the EPA?

a) The EPA has worked tirelessly to protect sharks from the attempts by oil companies to destroy their environments
b) The EPA treats oil companies as a shark would a human: attempting to kill/destroy/devour them by denying them permits needed for offshore oil exploration
c) Due to oil company drilling, the sharks’ environment has been disturbed.  The EPA plans to end this disruption by denying permits to all oil companies.

Read a recent StudentNewsDaily article “EPA Rules Force Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans” here.


Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.

Lisa Benson, Victor Valley (Calif.) Daily Press editorial cartoonist.

Answers

b) The EPA treats oil companies as a shark would a human: attempting to kill/destroy/devour them by denying them permits needed for offshore oil exploration