Guest post By Alan Caruba
The Environmental Protection Agency is using its power to advance the objective of the environmental movement to deny Americans access to the energy that sustains the nation’s economy and is using the greatest hoax ever perpetrated, global warming—now called “climate change”—to achieve that goal.
“This standard isn’t the once-and-for-all solution to our environmental challenge,” said Lisa Jackson, the EPA administrator, “but it is an important commonsense step toward tackling the ongoing and very real threat of climate change and protecting the future for generations to come. It will enhance the lives of our children and our children’s children.”
This is a boldfaced lie. Its newest rule is based on the debasement of science that is characterized and embodied in the global warming hoax. It will deprive America of the energy it requires to function.
Since the 1980s the Greens have been telling everyone that carbon dioxide was causing global warming—now called climate change—and warning that CO2 emissions were going to kill everyone in the world if they weren’t dramatically reduced. The ball was put in motion with the United Nations 1997 Kyoto Protocols when many nations agreed to this absurd idea and carried forward by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ever since.
The Environmental Protection Agency was created to clean the nation’s air and water where it was deemed that a hazard existed. Like most noble ideas and most Congressional mandates, the initial language was vague enough to be interpreted to mean anything those in charge wanted it to mean. Add in the global warming hoax and you have the means to destroy the nation.
Now it means that the source of fifty percent of all the electricity generated in the United States is being systematically put out of business and please do not act surprised; that’s exactly what Barack Obama said he intended to do if elected President.
This is evil writ large.
Shutting down utilities that use coal, an energy source the U.S. has in such abundance that it could provide electricity for the next hundreds of years, and ensuring that no new ones are built fits in perfectly with all the Green pipedreams about “renewable” energy. Solar and wind presently provide about two percent of the nation’s electricity and, without government subsidies and mandates requiring their use, they would not exist at all.
How stupid is it to not build more nuclear power plants when this form of power doesn’t emit anything but energy?
How stupid is it not to use coal when the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal?
How stupid is it to begin to find reasons to regulate and thwart fracking, the technology to access trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that has been in use for decades?
How stupid is it to cover miles of land, far from any urban center, with hundreds of solar panels or huge, ugly wind turbines that kill thousands of birds every year?
The sun does not shine all the time, nor does the wind blow all the time. In the event of overcast skies or a day without wind, traditional plants—those using coal, gas, nuclear or generating hydroelectric power—have to be maintained as a backup. Take away the coal-fired plants and there were be huge gap in the national grid.
Darkness will descend and Americans will begin to live with blackouts and brownouts that will undermine every aspect of our lives. It’s bad enough when a town or even a city briefly loses power because of a storm, but imagine that occurring on a regular basis because there just aren’t enough utilities generating power!
What kind of people stand by idly while its own government conspires to take away the primary source of energy that everything else depends upon? The answer? You. The answer is the many elected politicians that have done little to rein in a rogue government agency intent on undermining the nation by denying it the ability to generate power with the least expensive source of electricity, coal.
The EPA, an unelected bureaucracy, has just ensured that all Americans, industries, small businesses, and individuals will begin pay far more for electrical power.
Richard J. Trzupek, the author of “Regulators Run Wild” and an environment policy advisor for The Heartland Institute, said of the new rule, “With around 50,000 megawatts of coal-fired power set to be forcibly retired in the next few years—thanks to the draconian policies of Obama’s EPA—this rule ensures that no new modern, efficient coal fired power plants will be built to fill the gap.”
In a triumph of crony capitalism, Trzupek notes that “The big winner will be Obama’s good friend, GE Chairman Jeff Immelt. Since solar and wind cannot fill a 50,000 megawatt baseload gap, the only way to ensure continued reliability of the grid is to build a lot of natural gas-fired plants quickly. And who is the biggest supplier of natural gas-fired combustion engines? GE of course.”
If you think that environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, among many others, are seeking to “protect” the Earth, you are seriously mistaken. They have been among the leading opponents of coal and they have had allies in Congress such as the Majority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, (D-NV) who has said “Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick.”
NO! Coal provides the engine of our nation’s electrical power and oil provides the energy that fuels our transportation and is the basis for countless products that enhance and improve our lives every day.
We are witnessing the destruction of the nation by the environmental movement and the EPA has just provided you with the most dramatic example of that plan.
I’m disappointed to see that the US is moving in the direction of cloud cuckoo land, presently the home of most of Europe and Australia. Very depressing.
Rise up! The Democrats are poisoned with the nanny-state mentality and the Republicans are slaves to the social conservatives. Is there another way?
Hope and Change! Thanks Leftists.
I don’t know if there was ever or would ever be a best time to have a showdown, across the board, with the Progressive Project, but I guess now is as good a time as any. There must be no cease-fires or armistices. This is to the finish.
Obama rarely aknowledges that “pollution” by CO2 is the real reason behind ALL of his energy policies. Hopefully the ever-increasing public awareness of the “Climate Change” hoax will help to make Obama the one-term president this country so desperately needs.
From the article:
“How stupid is it to not build more nuclear power plants when this form of power doesn’t emit anything but energy?
How stupid is it not to use coal when the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal?
How stupid is it to begin to find reasons to regulate and thwart fracking, the technology to access trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that has been in use for decades?
How stupid is it to cover miles of land, far from any urban center, with hundreds of solar panels or huge, ugly wind turbines that kill thousands of birds every year?”
The Answer: Incredibly stupid.
This is what happens when a nation is in the grips of a movement driven by people with a huge emotional, political and financial vested interest in an ideology that precludes them from being able to reason and think rationally using facts and sound science. They are so ideologically and emotionally driven that trying to reason with them is a waste of time and energy — much the same as it is trying to reason with a dedicated Communist. The only hope that we will someday have is someone in the White House with the brains and common sense to return sanity to our environmental and energy policies.
The EPA does what it does because it’s the EPA. The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy explain most of it.
Political cronies will exploit bureaucracies such as the EPA by producing the necessary perception of problems and in the same breath, offer their solutions to the “problems”. And bureaucracies will exploit those who are gullible; or the self-serving who are going along for the ride.
EPA offices could do with having their electricity cut off 44% of every hour of the day so they can appreciate how much electricity is being produced by coal-fired powerstations. That’s why smart meters were installed. Right? 😉
There are many, many people who hope this will turn around next election. It will not. Regardless of who is elected, they may or may not change some of the rules and enforcements, but they will not strip the EPA of their authority. To strip the EPA of their authority would be for a president to cede power. There is none who will do so. And, no one is making it an issue.
The fact is, until we find a party…. create a party, who will limit the power of the government, this will not stop. There may be some cessation of the regulatory enslavement, but, the authority will not be ceded by either party.
Currently, we have, to be frank, anti-American people in power. It is their will to bankrupt the U.S. and they are succeeding. The very people assigned to protect our interests believe it is in our interests to fail.
This nation holds more coal than any other nation in the world. It serves no other purpose…. (other than creating natural gas)…. than to keep this nation economically viable. IT IS HERE!!!! WE ARE HERE!!! And we’re pissing it away. Stupid, stupid bastards.
The U.S. holds more coal and natural gas than anyone else in the world. We can make oil from shale…. more oil than any one else in the world holds. With a proper utilization mix, more wealth and economic development can be gained simply by providing for others than can be imagined. But, why would we want to advance the human condition? Malthusian misanthropists are communists. And communists are Malthusian misanthropists.
It is becoming more and more clear that the oil and gas companies are the ones who funded this madness. Now the gas companies are having second thoughts…. stupid,stupid bastards…. may they rot in hell.
With due respect Anthony,
The environmental community has for at least a dozen years, held natural gas suspect, as a fossil derived product. We tried years ago to have fuel cells included in a state subsidized program to reduce air emissions (because there are none from fuel cells), and we were refused support because almost all fuel cells are powered by natural gas. Not a renewable fuel source. Crazy yes? But true.
Natural gas will become the new demon once coal is curtailed.
Watch, its already happening.
There is an answer, clean sweep Mr. Green and his minions from the halls of government. If not Mr. Green’s policies will leave the nation without food, broke, cold and in the dark. A signature legacy if ever there was one.
You said it well, but…
Well it’s not me. I write my representatives on a regular basis. I cannot count the number of times I have pressed for impeachment of Obama- based on very rational and fact based arguments. Unfortunately for all of us Americans the Republican leadership is 2 parts coward and 1 part dumb.
The good news is that there is an election in 8 months and it is not looking good for the PBO white house. With any luck his wretched healthcare plan will be trashed by the SCOTUS.
Here in Texas I am supporting an excellent senate candidate to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison, by the name of Ted Cruz. I can only assume as well versed as you sound that you are already aware of Mr. Cruz and will support him as well.
One step at a time we will remove the parasites lick ticks on a dog and with any luck have enough Republicans with a backbone to implement systematic reforms that will prevent any of this communist garbage from ever being seen in the daylight here in the US ever again.
Small home gasoline and diesel powered generators are going to become a booming market in the next few years!
North Texas had a record hot summer last year. We did have rolling black-outs. However, the wind mills out in West Texas produced no electricity because there was no wind because of the high which kept out the cool fronts. Where do I sign up for a 0% renewable electricity plan?
Excellent rant, a perfect description of the folly engendered by militant Watermelons and their useful idiots in the Administration.
Print this out, and send it to all candidates for federal office. We need a commitment from the leading Republican candidates for President, especially Mr. Romney, and the best way to get it is to make sure he understands that (despite James Sexton’s pessimism) the voters are going to insist that the EPA be reigned in—or abolished. Make sure that if the Congress takes the lead, there is no chance of a veto—unless, of course, The Puppet President is re-elected.
/Mr Lynn
Hmmm … I don’t know that you really know what you are really talking about … The so-labeled sc’s are the ONLY salvation (they pulled the Repub party out of a stall in the mid 90’s); are you totally unawares of the state the go-along to get-along Repubs left congress in thru the 70’s, 80’s and into the mid 90’s?
Do you know who ‘Bob’ Michels was?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Michel
Robert Henry “Bob” Michel (pronounced “Michael”; born March 2, 1923) is an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois’ 18th congressional district, and was the GOP leader in Congress, serving as Minority Leader for 14 years (1981–1995) during an era of Democratic Party House dominance. If he hadn’t retired at the 1994 elections which saw his party regain control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in forty years, he could have become Speaker.
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“He who does not remember history is doomed to repeat it.” – G. Santayana
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Sadly, some things have to be learned the hard way.
“Since the 1980s the Greens have been telling everyone that carbon dioxide was causing global warming—now called climate change” Caruba quote.
Pssst Alan — the “CC” in that organization formed in the 1980s, the IPCC, stands for Climate Change.
We did? You mean in February (recall that cold snap – for which the utilities had not sufficiently prepared for cold weather? And then nat gas supply/pressure through the network could not keep up too … all this also affected New Mexico as well.)
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/02/we-spent-billions-on-wind-power-and-all-i-got-was-a-rolling-blackout/
We narrowly avoided ‘rolling blackouts’ several times during the summer owing to conservation measures … I monitored the ERCOT near-realtime state power consumption webpage pretty closely. I even called the city about some soccer field lights that were known to be on during the day (for whatever reason; mis-adjusted timers most likely.)
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“Francisco Fernandez says:
March 28, 2012 at 8:11 pm”
I seriously hope not. We don’t have to look too far to see how well that will work, try Lagos, Nigeria. Not only do most residents have to be connecetd to the “grid” and pay connection fees for no or very little reliable power, they have to run their own generators too.
Hi guys, not sure you saw this in the Obamacare chaos, but
Texas Wins Clean Air Act Fight with EPA
Jonathan H. Adler • March 28, 2012 9:24 pm
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sternly rebuked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for overstepping its statutory authority in rejecting three air pollution control regulations adopted by the state of Texas for their alleged non-conformity with applicable Clean Air Act requirements. In Luminant Generation Company, LLC v. EPA, the Fifth Circuit the EPA had “no legal basis” for its decision and remanded the decision back to the agency.
At issue in the case were three Texas regulations governing permit requirements that were a part of Texas’ State Implementation Plan (SIP) under the federal Clean Air Act. According to the statute, the EPA is to decide whether or not relevant state regulations comply with SIP requirements within 18 months of their submission. In this case, however, the EPA waited years before claiming the three regulatory provisions were insufficient. More significantly, the EPA “did not identify any provision of the CAA or its implementing regulations that Texas’s program violated.”
http://volokh.com/2012/03/28/texas-wins-clean-air-act-fight-with-epa/
GE again. Quite possibly the worst company on the planet. The cause of, and solution to, virtually every major was-a-non-problem we face. The true face of the enemy within. It is sickening what has happened to this once great company, and what it is doing to this once great country.
The Hockey Stick
There was a crooked Mann
Who played a crooked trick
And had a crooked plan
To make a crooked stick
By using crooked math
That favored crooked lines
Lysenko’s crooked path
Led thru the crooked pines
And all his crooked friends
Applaud what crooked seems
But all that crooked ends
Derives from crooked means
Policy Guy says: March 28, 2012 at 8:06 pm
“The environmental community has for at least a dozen years, held natural gas suspect, as a fossil derived product”
The planet Uranus has 199,663,000,000,000,000 kg of Methane (natual gas) and no fossils.
If the ‘environmental community’ is saying that Methane is a ‘fossil derived product’, then I think they have some explaining to do.
GE is not such a great company if you’re a common stock shareholder. DAMHIK. Or, how I did know, until a couple of years ago when I finally lost patience and sold my shares after seeing them essentially tread water for more than a decade.
They’re executives may be making plenty of money in salary and bonus, and I suppose there could be preferred shareholders getting dividends I never saw, but you’ll never see me buy GE stock again. (Well, unless the Feds do so on my behalf–I suppose I AM a shareholder in GM now, right? Since the Feds are shareholders? And who are the Feds if not us?)
Obama and the EPA sicken’s me!
Obama is more like Hugo Chavez every day. A blatant Liar, Propped up by the Media. Truth is an unknown to this evil administration and it’s jack booted EPA.
Obama deliberately lied by saying, “We only produce 2 percent of the world’s oil.”
According to the federal government’s energy administration, the United States produces 10 percent of the world’s production, making it the third-largest oil-producing nation.
This administration is the most inept ever, that’s a red herring to try and cover for it being the most corrupt ever. With this administration they go hand in hand–incompetent and corrupt.
fake the ineptness to keep your attention away from their siphoning off the tax payers money. Ever notice all the ‘Green Energy’ corps. That get a giant pot of cash, and then almost immediately file for bankruptcy and disappear…..WITH the cash?
They fake the ineptness to cover up the unconstitutional grabs at power that they keep doing. Actually they are inept even in their corruption, they keep getting caught.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/obama-touts-energy-policy-flubs-fuel-fact-video/#ixzz1pxbyEEno