Over the weekend, Forbes on Fox discussed an EPA plan to protect wetlands could give the government power to make what host David Asman called, “one of the biggest government landgrabs in our history.” He then asked panelist John Tamny to “make your case” to just abolish the EPA overall.

Tamny said, “We should abolish the EPA precisely because we want to help the environment. The EPA is a barrier to economic growth, yet economic growth has been proven time after time again the best way to fix the environment. So abolish it and help it.”

Asman hinted at the kind of response he wanted from panelist Elizabeth MacDonald, “E-Mac, it’s true, the EPA very often goes far beyond its mandate. It even requires dairy farmers to prepare themselves for - what is it called? Milk catastrophe! Milk spill!”

But MacDonald disagreed. She said, “I don’t want big corporations polluting the streams and rivers of our country.”

So Asman turned to another panelist to suggest that Tamny was right.  “Mike Ozanian, the EPA has such power over our lives, and these are the geniuses, by the way, that just promoted that guy John Beale, who turned out to be a fake and he’s now serving time in prison, he was a big shot at the EPA.”

Ozanian didn’t come right out and say the EPA should be abolished. But panelist Steve Forbes did. “We should (abolish it), David.”

According to the Office of Management and Budget, the benefits of EPA regulation far outweigh its costs. Shouldn’t that at least be mentioned on a business show? And shouldn’t Asman have at least asked how Tamny and Forbes think the environment will be protected without an EPA?

Video below via Media Matters, of a March 29 segment from Forbes On Fox.