Excerpts from: EPA left to pick up climate change where Congress dropped the debate By David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin
The Obama administration told Congress to find a way to regulate greenhouse gases — or else.
Last month, Congress refused: Democratic leaders in the Senate declined to take up climate legislation before their August break, which means it looks effectively dead for this session.
Now the White House is stuck with “or else.”
The Environmental Protection Agency will soon begin regulating greenhouse gases factory by factory, power plant by power plant. That could be unwieldy, expensive and unpopular — even President Obama has said it’s not his preferred solution.
But for now, it’s his only option.
The next few months could bring a climax to the long-running debate over how to combat climate change, with the EPA trying to implement its rules and industry groups and opponents in Congress seeking to block it with lawsuits or legislation.
The administration will cite a mandate from the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases could be regulated like other air pollutants. But opponents will say it has chosen an approach that stretches the law and could impose serious economic costs.
The result of their fight could be the first limits on greenhouse gases from American smokestacks — or a significant defeat for the White House and environmental groups.
The administration “wanted to be able to hold out the threat of clean-air regulation [by the EPA], as a way to . . . try to get people to the table,” said Jeffrey R. Holmstead, an EPA official under the Bush administration, who now works for the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. “They’re now faced with the kind of unenviable task of trying to make it work.”
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I can’t think of a thing this “administration” has done that isn’t a complete failure. But then, they have absolutely no experience beyond campaigning, which means in the real world they’re clueless.
Next time we elect somebody, would the voters please look at the candidate’s resume? It just might give a clue what they’re “electing”.
As soon as the EPA institutes regulations it all goes to the courts. Get ready to rumble.
I will bet there isn’t a Democrat Congresscritter that isn’t sweating this and hoping nothing is done until after the election.
Meanwhile the EPA War on the Kulaks er,American Farmers continues….
“— even President Obama has said it’s not his preferred solution.
But for now, it’s his only option.”
Oh I know, being a dictator in a representative Republic is hard work and full of reprisals, until one gradually begins to feel a trace of absolute power.
Given the ruling of the SCOTUS, I don’t see how this gets reversed unless 1) An overwhelming majority in congress decides to handcuff the EPA.(The majority would have to be 2/3 in both houses to override a veto.) or 2) We get a president that handcuffs the EPA himself. Either way, we’re going to have to wait for more than 2 years for even a remote possibility. We need to hold everyone that had a part in the real travesty accountable.
I figure if the mms can be broken up and reformed .. any agency is subject to the same rules. EPA is bloated and corrupt .. they’d best remember the current ruling class will not always be in power.
If they don’t watch it they could cause the entire clean air act to be rescinded just as a means to fight this off…
I opened a coke can just now and a bunch of fizzy stuff came out, should I report that to the EPA ?
nota bene – you’ve got some coding issues at the top of this post.
[Fixed, thanks. ~dbs]
What Obama and the rest of that crew fail to understand is that the American People don’t respond well to threats. Never have, never will. All it does is get our backs up.
PW Townsend says:
August 4, 2010 at 11:38 am
‘As soon as the EPA institutes regulations it all goes to the courts. Get ready to rumble.’
Bingo, we have a winner
Or congress could declare CO2 a non pollutant and take it out of the EPA hands. It would save the Tax Payers/Consumer a lot of money and Law Makers’ jobs.
Texas declared War on the EPA yesterday – read this:
http://www.globalwarming.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/epa-texas-letter.pdf
I’ve never read an official government document that bitter and that contemptuous of the Fed’s. It’s amazing!
And the dems have vastly overestimated the ability of the EPA to make this stick. The biggest problem is that *everything* the EPA does is going to reduce manufacturing jobs in the affected areas; imagine how it will play for the Feds to be actively killing jobs while unemployment is still near 10%!!!
And the new Congress has a very effective tool – they don’t need to pass anything that would get vetoed, they just need to slash funding for the EPA by 75% and see how it takes to get their attention. A Republican house may not be strong enough to dictate specific policy changes, but in deficit obsessed, budget cutting world they can play hell with the EPA’s day to day operations.
I think we are about to see a 2 year war inside the government as different factions controlling different pieces of it are going to go after each other. As in all civil wars, those who seek chaos are guaranteed the win.
Rockyroad;
Don’t blame me, I voted for the American. (I saw it on a bumper sticker.)
Curiousgeorge says:
August 4, 2010 at 11:52 am
What Obama and the rest of that crew fail to understand is that the American People don’t respond well to threats. Never have, never will. All it does is get our backs up.
You’re right. But I wonder how the EPA beaurocrats respond to threats? We can save $100 B over the next ten years if we shut the agency down and put all of them on the street.
Can it be a consequence of the current saturn-uranus opposition? 🙂
When people get their backs up, they tend to do even more strongly that which they have been threatened not to do.
(Cross-posted from previous thread – more on-topic here).
On can see how strong the EPA is on a scientific defence of the IPCC from its passage defending the IPCC over Amazongate. For example, the EPA report states:
“Furthermore, as this finding is specific to the Amazon region, petitioners’ claims are not relevant to the Endangerment Finding. ”
Even skeptics do not dismiss claims that atmospheric CO2 is dangerous, using the argument that it is only dangerous to people living in other parts of the globe! This is mind-boggling. It really looks like an “anything goes” style with the EPA.
http://nigguraths.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/epa-flubs-amazongate/
As long as you plant a tree each time you open a can, you will be ok.
If you don’t, I’ll report your a.. 🙂
Pkatt:
The problem is that when the Republicans get in power they don’t clean house as effectively as the Democrats do.
It all boils down to political power. If control of one house of congress changes hands in November, the EPA will be forced by political reality to, well, “rethink” the wisdom of regulating CO2.
If the Democrats retain control of both houses in November, then there will be an ugly legal fight on EPA’s CO2 regulations, which will be bad for Mr. Obama’s re-election chances in 2012.
But regardless of control in the Senate, there will for sure be enough shift in the composition of the Senate to eliminate the possibility of approval of any kind of treaty that limits CO2 emissions. International agreements are dead for at least two years, and maybe indefinitely.
Mr. Obama would be (politically) wise to put the leash on the EPA dogs, but I am not sure he can bring himself to do it.
Or else…Obama is going to go Voodoo on them!
I’ll have the beer and popcorn ready for the November elections. It’ll be like watching NASCAR only with more crashes. Team red is in for it.
I voted for Obama, but I hope that next time around I have an alternative other than Sarah Palin types. I’m unhappy with nearly everything he’s brought forward from his ill-advised and out of touch curbs on carbon dioxide to his horrible education policies to his failures to get out of Guantanamo and Iraq, and to his new Vietnam in Afghanistan, a country that was untamable by the Brits and the Russians.
I’m sorry to say that he simply doesn’t understnad how things work. A brilliant guy who has nary a clue. While Bush damaged everything he touched, Obama has done nothing to fix anything that Bush touched, and is actually just maintaining the status quo.
James Sexton,
Either house of Congress can effectively block an EPA regulation; one house or the other can make the EPA administrators lives miserable, for as long as desired, by forcing them to testify before multiple committees, and can refuse to approve the EPA budget in the absence of a specific agreement to not implement a specific regulation. If either house changes hands, CO2 regulation by the EPA is dead.
Maybe shut down a power plant for election day?