Issued today 4/28/2010
EPA Press Office
202-564-4355
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2010
Statement of Lisa P. Jackson Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Legislative Hearing on Clean Energy Policies That Reduce Our Dependence on Oil
House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment
WASHINGTON – Chairmen Markey and Waxman, Ranking Members Upton and Barton, Chairman Emeritus Dingell, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify about the Environmental Protection Agency’s work to reduce America’s oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions. That work stems from two seminal events.
First, in April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act’s definition of air pollution includes greenhouse gases. The Court rejected then-Administrator Johnson’s refusal to determine whether that pollution from motor vehicles endangers public health or welfare.
In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, and based on the best available science and EPA’s review of thousands of public comments, I found in December 2009 that motor-vehicle greenhouse gas emissions do endanger Americans’ health and welfare.
I am not alone in reaching that conclusion. Scientists at the 13 federal agencies that make up the U.S. Global Change Research Program have reported that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions pose significant risks to the wellbeing of the American public. The National Academy of Sciences has stated that the climate is changing, that the changes are mainly caused by human interference with the atmosphere, and that those changes will transform the environmental conditions on Earth unless counter-measures are taken.
The second pivotal event was the agreement President Obama announced in May 2009 between EPA, the Department of Transportation, the nation’s automakers, America’s autoworkers, and the State of California to seek harmonized, nationwide limits on the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of new cars and light trucks.
My endangerment finding in December satisfied the prerequisite in the Clean Air Act for establishing a greenhouse gas emissions standard for cars and light trucks of Model Years 2012 through 2016. So I was able to issue that final standard earlier this month, on the same day that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood signed a final fuel efficiency standard for the same vehicles.
Using existing technologies, manufacturers can configure new cars and light trucks to satisfy both standards at the same time. And vehicles complying with the federal standards will automatically comply with the greenhouse gas emissions standard established by California and adopted by 13 other states. This harmonized and nationally uniform program achieves the goal the President announced last May.
Moreover, the EPA and DOT standards will reduce the lifetime oil use of the covered vehicles by more than 1.8 billion barrels. That will do away with more than a billion barrels of imported oil, assuming the current ratio of domestic production to imports does not improve. The standards also will eliminate more than 960 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution.
But if Congress now nullified EPA’s finding that greenhouse gas pollution endangers the American public, that action would remove the legal basis for a federal greenhouse gas emissions standard for motor vehicles. Eliminating the EPA standard would forfeit one quarter of the combined EPA-DOT program’s fuel savings and one third of its greenhouse gas emissions cuts. California and the other states that have adopted California’s greenhouse gas emissions standard would almost certainly respond by enforcing that standard within their jurisdictions, leaving the automobile industry without the nationwide uniformity that it has described as vital to its business.
I would like to mention one more action that EPA has taken to reduce America’s oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions. In February, I signed a final renewable fuels standard. It substantially increases the volume of renewable products – including cellulosic bio-fuel – that refiners must blend into transportation fuel. EPA will implement the standard fully by the end of 2022. In that year alone, the standard will decrease America’s oil imports by 41 and a half billion dollars. And U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that year will be 138 million metric tons lower thanks to the standard.
EPA’s recent work on vehicles and fuels shows that enhancing America’s energy security and reducing America’s greenhouse gas pollution are two sides of the same coin.
R133
==============================
h/t to WUWT reader Michael C. Roberts
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From the purely political point of view, they can say anything they want about green house gases. From the scientific point of view CO2 like anything else is always a matter of concentration as to the effects it may or may not have. Measures that encourage greater mechanical efficiency are not a bad. To quote opinions of others is acceptable. To participate in propaganda and sophistry to achieve your political ends is expected. To base your policy and reasoning on less then technically or scientifically sound ground is poor policy. It is never a good idea to try and achieve goals no matter how admirable for the wrong reasons. This goes to the heart of the means to ends argument and while this may make short term political sense it is still philosophically and morally indefensible.
Much public policy in many places around the world is based on one mythology or another. That is the way it is that is the way it has always been. I see no prospect of changing that. Like many other wrong headed policies based on mythologies they can and often do come back to bite you and bite you hard.
Arctic Sea Ice … its possible loss POSSIBLY stopping Ocean currents, leading to 300 mph winds killing 6 BILLION people …
mean that SULFUR REDUCTIONS, are Dangerous Pollutants
ALL SCRUBBERS MUST BE BANNED (this summer).
Actually, this is not really a joke … the level of risk THIS YEAR is elevated by a 1-in-2000 year Natural coincidence of lack of Volcanos, the low Ice point at the switchover of the 60 year Pacific Oscillation, & especially the “SUPER-EL-NINO”
… ANY RISK of 6 BILLION deaths ought to make this _THE_ PRIORITY.
The Presidential Global Warming Advisor has been begging to put 1/500th of our cuts back up but high which is 500 times as effective — & is backed by:
> the Top Environmentalist of all, “Gaia” Lovelock,
> plus the World’s #1 Ozone Expert (Crutzen) and
> his recent opponent (Caldiera) who is still cited by AGW sites but has “converted”
… but it looks like we have only the TIME to turn off all Scrubbers., resulting in 500 times the acid rain of their proposal — in comparison, a minor annoyance.
Indeed, in the Arctic, NASA says 29% of warming is from Sulfur CUTS, the General Global increase (part of which is Natural), accounting for only 26% — the remainder is from SOOT, especially from Diesels in Europe & Industries switching to CHINA, both impelled by CARBON CAPS.
CAP & TRADE IS DENOUNCED AS A “SCAM” BY EVERY, repeat EVERY, one of the TOP Scientists ( even ) on the GREEN SIDE
(even Hansen, on Letterman no less, joining the other “Green” Scientists listed above on both the “Cap & Trade is a Scam” AND the “Soot is worse than CO2” Crusades).
I put the Risk of 99% of the USA dieing (roughly about January), at about 25%
(even though we are right on track for a Disaster, there are still too many “IF” s in my opening line. Do not be like the Louisiana Governor before Katrina — and this is risking 6 MILLION TIMES the 1000 lives she callously threw away.
This is no longer a Joke.
And, as Sulfur is a Global Cooler, and SULFUR CUTS therefore Globally Warm, the director has ALREADY condemned ALL SULFUR CUTS.
Legally.
Pamela Gray says:
My vote for Obama has been rescinded.
Apparently 52% of people that voted for him have similar sentiments. But it’s too late. He’s not even 1/2 way through is 4 year term. 2 years and 9 months to go with him.
If you dig through the California Air Resources Board documentation on the Low Carbon Fuels Standard, you will find that corn ethanol has a carbon intensity of 95 grams CO2/MJ of fuel energy. Thus, the EPA mandate to produce 16 billion gal/yr of ethanol will do nothing to reduce the carbon emissions from vehicles. It will only bring subsidies to agriculture and run-off from farms that ends up causing dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is available at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/fuels/lcfs/121409lcfs_lutables.pdf
And, the EPA will mandate an additional 16 Billion gal of cellulosic ethanol. The target for 2010 was 100 million gal, but it turns out that misrepresentation of production by two ethanol producers lead the EPA to believe that this was achievable. The EPA revised their estimate to 6 million gal, and they will be lucky to see 3 million. This will all come from pilot plants, not commercial facilities. Cellulosic ethanol has been a promise for 20 year, and it never delivered on that promise.
Biodiesel is in a similar position, but at least they show a reduction in carbon emissions, but only barely. Another story for another time.
Brent in Calgary,
The scary thing is that our welfare is very directly tied to theirs. I don’t relish the thought of what I see happening down there myself…
#$#@ur momisugly$^&^#&%#&^&^!%$!#$&^&$#%@ur momisugly!$ $@ur momisugly
An embarrassment to our nation. I apologize to the world on behalf of the U.S.A. If we were to desire our dependence on foreign energy away, all we’d have to do is wish it so. We have enough oil, we have enough coal, we have enough natural gas to last us centuries beyond today. Any shortfall we may have, we could use atomic energy. The EPA’s answer is simply to cut down supply by increasing cost.
Efficient, cheap, plentiful, and ready to use energy. Why use it?
“the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act’s definition of air pollution includes greenhouse gases.”
The Supreme Court can only offer ‘opinion’. It’s place it not to come to scientific conclusions. The Supreme Court is out of its place here. But then so many things are out of place in America. If a Constitutional lawyer took up a case about the validity of what the Supreme Court ‘concluded’ they would have a strong case.
But there is a real problem in the United States right now, many of its elected officials don’t care what the Constitution says. In fact it appears some hate the Constitution.
Well of course it has nothing to do with climate or the health of the American People or energy independence; these people are all plain Marxists who have been working on getting into power for years; and now that they have ramroaded through their so-called health reform law; they now need massive tax transfers of wealth to fund the whole scam.
This whole bunch in the inner circle of the present administration are in my humble opinion borderline criminally insane; and if the American People don’t get some guts this November and turf this whole clatch out of the Congress and get a Veto-Proof Senate of adult people; then you can kiss goodbye to the American experiment in liberty.
The Republicans aren’t any better than the Democrats; and in particular except for a mere handful they are total wooses.
I find myself wanting to throw up, every time I hear anybody from the California Republican Party talking about their great programs. There’s hardly enough brains amongst the whole lot of them; to make a loud enough rattle to even hear.
The plan is pretty straight forward. “health care is a fait accompli; cap and tax will attempt to fund it; and citizenship for millions of very angry mostly Mexican invaders will ensure the sane people never ever regain control of their government.”
Bush started it with his bailout stupidity; and simply handed the Marxists the tools of the Nation’s dismantling; and all these college mush heads had their 15 minutes of fame helping to vote in a fully trained Saul Alinsky radical who is angry at the USA, and the rest of the western world; because of how the British treated his Mau mau terrorist grandfather during the Kenya slaughter of the former Colonial era in Africa.
This is what happens when you give authority to children still wet behind their ears.
Americans are about to learn what their forefathers went through to create the free society that their ancesters entrusted to their care; and frankly comparing today’s examples with those of the greatest generation that preceeded my own; you aren’t up to the task. The playtime of the flower generation is about to reap its own reward.
And as for the rest of the somewhat still free world; well you aren’t going to escape either; you’ve grown too soft as well.
OK Ms Jackson, I got two questions. One physics and one economics.
Physics – OK, so the US reduces CO2 output by a percent or two through this regulation. Are you under the impression that this will have a significant effect on world wide levels? Or were you planning on building a wall around the United States stretching up to the stratosphere to keep foreign CO2 out?
Economics – OK, so if demand from the US drops, that would result in oil prices… let’s see, trying to remember how supply and demand works…. something about demand going down so prices fall… making it more affordable for other countries without silly rules… so their consumption goes up… I think that’s called a feedback loop? So most of what the US “saves” in CO2 production the rest of the world replaces?
Uhm – OK that was more than two questions. Two was just a prediction for scenario A. I had scenario B also written up which had six questions, and this was my actual prediction which I am now publishing because it was my original highest probabality prediction.
Well I just tried to listen to that Lisa Jackson video just above and I couldn’t stand more than the first 30 seconds of it.
I thought we were in real trouble before; but now I know it for sure.
That woman has the mark of Jim Jones all over her.
You really don’t think that Obama pulled this bunch just out of a hat full of names; this coup has been in the planning for years; you can tell that from the cast of characters.
I thought Carol Browner was a total dingbat; but this Jackson is a real piece of work; well that’s just my opinion of course; you may have a different idea.
41 and a half billion dollars…….????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????? WT(heck)F?????? Given that Obama has spent 4 trillion!!!!! in about 1 and 1/2 years, that means we’d have gotten our savings in about……(4,000,000,000,000/365+180 = 545 days ……..=7,339,449,541/day)………Great, I look forward to the extra 6 days of savings on our dependence from foreign oil in the year 2022. Very nice. The whole damned world has gone insane. People actually get up in front of other people, presumably not under the influence of some mind altering narcotic, and blather and spew idiotic mewlings. All the while, the people she’s blathering to don’t get up and laugh hysterically at her. All the while the entire group of people are presumably acting in our(my, their????) interests. The whole damned world …………..sorry, rough day at work……..
Allow me to remind you all that the ‘opposing’ candidate in the last election also supports cap and trade. As long as folks continue to vote Republicrat there will only be the continuing creep towards totalitarianism in this country.
[sigh]
I ran across this article on Baltimore Sun’s site today.
EPA turns up climate heat as Senate dithers APRIL 28, 2010
“With prospects for a Senate climate bill under a cloud, the Obama administration has turned up the heat. The Environmental Protection Agency says in a new report that there is “clear evidence” that human activities are altering the Earth’s atmosphere and that climate is changing.”
“The EPA report lays out 24 “indicators” showing that climate is already shifting, most of them spotting trends in the United States. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased 14 percent in the United States from 1990 to 2008.”
=====
Here’s a list of a few of the groups who take issue with the EPA’s Endangerment finding and have submitted Petitions for Reconsideration. I guess the EPA is about to deny all the Petitions.
Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act
EPA is currently carefully reviewing the petitions below.
Petitions can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment/petitions.html
Petitions were filed by:
Arthur G. Randol III, Ph.D.
Counsel for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America
Coalition for Responsible Regulation
Industrial Minerals Association – North America
Great Northern Project Development, L.P.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Rosebud Mining Company
Massey Energy Company
Alpha Natural Resources, Inc.
Commonwealth of Virginia
Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change Science and Environmental Policy Project Competitive Enterprise Institute
Pacific Legal Foundation
Peabody Energy Company
United States Representative John Linder (GA–7th District), U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46th District), U.S. Representative John Shimkus (IL–19th District), U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey (GA–11th District), U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland (GA–3rd District), U.S. Representative Tom Price (GA–6th District), U.S. Representative Paul Broun (GA–10th District), U.S. Representative Steve King (IA–5th District), U.S. Representative Nathan Deal (GA–9th District), by and through Southeastern Legal Foundation Inc.
State of Texas
The Ohio Coal Association
Very sad indeed that someone yielding that amount of power can be so obtuse, whether it’s deliberate or not.
In other news, on the brighter side of things, Ms. Jackson has roughly 30 months left to enjoy this sham, and then she’ll disappear into the anals of history.
JimB
Anybody know what the black hole trigger rules are.
I post a comment; and it immediately hits the circular file and vanishes. So I hit the back key to get back to the comment window; and then resubmit it; and I get an error message that says I alaready said that; said what; there’s nothing to see; so what was it that I said wrong ?
Mark II says:
April 28, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Somewhat off topic for this discussion, but a federal office for the president-elect was instituted by the Presidental Transition Act of 1963.
…what federal building houses the ‘Office of the President Elect®’?
and Presidental is actually spelled, Presidential.
Dear America,
We in Canada would like to thank you for a long and prosperous business relationship from which we have both benefited. Alas, our paths must sometimes diverge, and even allies must sometimes disagree. On the matter of global warming, we are alarmed and concerned in regard to the steps you are taking. Warming has been very beneficial for Canada, even the polar bears seem to be enjoying it. So, while Canada has supported you in so many wars around the world, this is one fight we cannot assist you in. We are sorry, but you will have to fight this one without us.
We intend to keep our borders open however. When we disagreed on Vietnam for example, trade continued, though we understand your anger that we so readily accepted your draft dodgers. We hope you understand that in your fight against global warming, there may be “dodgers” on that issue as well.
Given your planned reduction of fossil fuel use, we expect a surplus as we have few other local customers for our oil. As a consequence, we will not only be accepting your climate dodgers, we will be encouraging them to bring their SUV’s with them. We will also be putting in place incentive packages for large groups of climate dodgers who band together and bring their factories with them as well.
This is intimidation strategy to pressure the Senate to accept the Energy Bill (Cap & Trade) currently in preparation.
So a call session to the Senate is the first step.
If they continue the process:
1. Clean up the Senate and Congress at the next election and VOTE!
2. Stop any funding of EPA and the monster dies!
3. Don’t accept any legislation and never pay a single dime.
4. Collectively burn your tax papers.
/sarc
C02 is a gateway ‘GAS’, or ‘para-vapor’, its use leads to the abuse of heavier gases, which in turn damages high society as a hole.
Many children are tempted to ‘para-vaporise’ for the first time at school, by peers, and in order to be part of the “In crowd”,….they inhale.
Some kids buck the trend, but often by the time they are in their early teens, they’re regularly using Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon.
Without intervention, they rapidly gravitate towards Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide and Hydrogen Sulfide.
Symptoms include violent spasms, pronounced twitching and gurling, followed by extend periods of lethargy.
We can stop this terrible social degradation, by fitting a respiration-retardation-device (plastic bag), over our childrens mouths.
They’ll soon see the benefits of a respiration free life style, liberated from dangerous atomic molecules in a gaseous state, they will turn to wholesome activities like laying prone, reclining in a totally relaxed state and complete muscular de-tensioning exercises.
This message brought to you from the Republicrat party – report your neighbour on 0300-911-1776
/sarc off
‘Reliance on foreign oil’ is nought but a scam.
Look: It doesn’t matter from whence the oil doth arrive.
The multinational oil companies will charge whatever they desire, regardless whether the oil is pumped from American shores or hauled here from other places.
The multinational oil companies OWN the oil they’ve bought.
And yes, while it is true that they pay a ‘royalty’ to the U.S. Government for the oil which they’ve extracted from THESE shores, they darned well WILL set the price for what they sell that oil, because THEY OWN IT.
So then, this whole argument over ‘foreign oil’ is nought but a phantom used to play YOU against ME, and everybody else.
Foreign oil … Give me a break!
Oh, and do be sure to ignore that man behind the curtain …
George E. Smith
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/28/epas-action-jackson-moving-forward/#comment-379211
Look at the résumé of this woman.
She’s NEVER had a real job.
DaveE.
“Market mechanisms for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental goals provide additional revenue streams to developing countries, and contribute to the convergence of incomes between developing and industrialized regions.”
http://www.tellus.org/documents/Great_Transition.pdf
JimB
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/28/epas-action-jackson-moving-forward/#comment-379221
I sort of assume you meant annals of history but anals will do just fine.
DaveE.
What is the hell is the head of the EPA doing talking about reducing dependence on foreign oil? That has nothing to do with whether emissions cause health problems. Her job is to deal with the science and not the political economics of oil.
This is the biggest con job ever perpetrated by the federal government.
Mike McMillan says:
April 28, 2010 at 4:24 pm
This administration is so depressing.
November can’t come soon enough.
Is that what “immigration reform” is for – to bolster the ranks of available democrat voters and keep them in power forever.