Today the EPA rejected petitions from citizens, groups, and states to reverse its 2009 decision to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.
The states of Virginia and Texas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, coal giant Peabody Energy Corp. and others sought to reverse the finding.
But the EPA, in rejecting the petitions, specifically cast aside claims that the Climategate e-mails that surfaced late last year have undercut evidence of a warming planet.
Administrator Lisa Jackson said the e-mails and other evidence the petitioners submitted wasn’t convincing. Jackson also made her own attacks on climate skeptics.
“These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination. Excess greenhouse gases are a threat to our health and welfare,” she said in a prepared statement. Jackson claimed that the scientists had been cleared of wrongdoing by multiple whitewashes investigations.
“Defenders of the status quo will try to slow our efforts to get America running on clean energy. A better solution would be to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation and an end to the oil addiction that pollutes our planet and jeopardizes our national security,” she added.
Petitioners also included, in addition to the CRUtape Letters, evidence of errors in the IPCC report that the EPA based its original ruling to regulate on. The EPA apparently demonstrating its illiteracy, ignored the dozens of errors and hundreds of non-peer-reviewed references to partisan environmental group propaganda as if they were scientific evidence.
“Of the alleged errors, EPA confirmed only two in a 3,000 page report. The first pertains to the rate of Himalayan glacier melt and second to the percentage of the Netherlands below sea level. IPCC issued correction statements for both of these errors. The errors have no bearing on Administrator Jackson’s decision. None of the errors undermines the basic facts that the climate is changing in ways that threaten our health and welfare,” EPA said in summarizing its rejection of the petitions.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Senate’s leading climate skeptic, criticized the EPA’s decision. He said the agency failed to allow an “open, transparent” process to look at the implications of the hacked e-mails and “hear scientists of all persuasions.”
“Open and fulsome debate only strengthens the foundations of scientific knowledge. But EPA chose instead to dismiss legitimate concerns about data quality, transparency, and billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded science as products of ‘conspiracies,’” Inhofe said in a statement Thursday.
Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute, one of the special interest advocacy groups cited in the IPCC report, said, “The endangerment finding is a science-based determination, based on a thorough review of current peer-reviewed scientific literature. Ensuring the EPA can act to reduce these harmful emissions is not only responsible, it is necessary. Delaying action on climate change threatens our country’s health and prosperity.”
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Poor Obama the First, only dictatorship will pass his green bill… the green shirts are coming!
Oh BTW, what’s this guy going to do now?
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23390848-with-five-private-jets-travolta-still-lectures-on-global-warming.do
I am often asked why I immigrated to Canada. This EPA foolishness just reinforces the wisdom of that decision.
Well, Duh.
This is no surprise. When do we get to court?!?!?!? Their position on the “science” is indefensible.
@Enneagram, re:
“CO2 is heavier than Air, so it can not go up, up and away to cover the earth.”
Yes, CO2 is a bit heavier than air (44 vs 29 molecular weight), but it is well-mixed in the atmosphere. It does certainly cover the Earth. The fact that plants grow at high altitudes in mountain ranges demonstrates this.
@Phil, re:
“Converting half of our passenger fleet to diesel could save about 17.8 billion gallons of oil per year. “
Actually, it would not. Diesel engines provide approximately 33 percent better mileage per gallon compared to gasoline engines. It is almost certain that the diesel vehicles will not achieve 70 miles per gallon, as that is achieved only with very small and light vehicles at highway speeds, not for big SUVs. Under the gasoline CAFE standards, light vehicles will achieve 35 miles per gallon with gasoline engines. The break-even point for total crude oil refined is approximately 52 miles per gallon for diesel fuel compared to 35 miles per gallon for gasoline. Yet, 52 divided by 35 is 1.486, or approximately 48 percent better fuel economy. A much more realistic number is 47 miles per gallon for diesel vehicles, which is 33 percent better than for gasoline engines. With that result (47 mpg for diesels), using diesel for half the passenger fleet would INCREASE crude oil refined in the USA by approximately 16 million gallons per year.
With the present US refinery configurations, one gallon of diesel fuel requires approximately 3 gallons of crude oil be refined, whereas one gallon of gasoline requires only 2 gallons of crude. Different refineries have slightly different yields, but those figures are a good average. It is possible to change the yields to provide more diesel and less gasoline per barrel of crude refined, but to do so requires extremely expensive capital investment in the refineries. Since refineries typically run on very small profit margins or at a net loss, that is not likely to happen.
Hail to Lisa Jackson for making a giant step towards opacity in government and authoritarian rule!
Yeah, we all know the “science” is garbage, but assuming Ms. Jackson has her way, I think the only remedy is for the people and the states to put the cabosh on this nonsense. Please read “Nullification – How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century” by Thomas Woods.
The EPA has “spoken” again.
Excuse me while I go throw up.
Chris
pat (July 29, 2010 at 5:55 pm)
Go to http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com for your carbon offsets.
From their web site, “FreeCarbonOffsets.com was created with you in mind. We take the conservation steps so you don’t have to. After obtaining your certificate of Carbon Offsets from us, you can proudly display it for all to see, to show others that you care about our environment. You can continue on in your daily life worry and guilt free. “
“It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
John Philpot Curran , 1790, The Right of Election
or
“Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”
frequently ascribed to T. Jefferson
OT: There’s a warmist puff piece circulating now from Jeremy Grantham claiming to be “everything you need to know about global warming in five minutes”. I have written a line-by-line rebuttal here: http://peacelegacy.org/articles/jeremy-grantham-see-why-global-warming-scare-threadbare-5-minutes.
You voted for these people America. Now you’re stuck with them. These people in power are just an indication of what America is as a whole, uneducated, taking huge blessings for granted, and unknowingly self destructive.
pat writes:
“In fact, market-based policies should be embraced, not condemned by Republicans (as well as Democrats). After all, these policies were innovations developed by conservatives in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations (and once strongly condemned by liberals)…”
I make no excuses for the Bush administration. However, don’t you remember the California power grid disaster that caused the recall of the governor? The laws that permitted those shenanigans came under Clinton, not Bush who had just taken office. Enron grew from the Clinton regulatory environment. During the Bush administration, Sarbanes-Oxley was passed for the purpose of preventing future Enrons. Unfortunately, it did not cover Fannie and Freddie, which is a totally Democrat enterprise. Also, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, an act of Congress, was seriously tightened under Bush, but did not cover Fannie, Freddie, or Barnie. Cap’n Tax is the mother of a million Enrons. God forbid that it should pass. How many Al Gores do we need preening their sanctimonious selves in public? The boys at CRU probably own Guyana by now.
(NOTE: As a former energy analyst, there is a LOT I can write about the tectonically structured “deregulation” of the California power market, which completely contradicts the popular mythology of that period as constructed by the major media… – Mike)
I am already performing the greatest act of civil disobedience of my recent lifetime, and this will continue til my final breath. I am breathing, and I am doing so with an attitude!
To symbolize this act I intend to blow up yellow balloons on every anniversary of this day and tie them to trees which will use that breath as nature designed. I suggest you all to the same.
Hear me, EPA! I WILL BREATHE!
And send a yellow balloon to the offices of the EPA. Every time you see a yellow balloon, remember this day.
Do the alarmists believe the EPA can show, beyond a reasonable doubt, in front of the SCOTUS, that man is causing global warming and that it’s catastropic?
All Administrative Agencies are required to publish rules in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act: US Code 5, Sections 551-559. This law makes it a crime to publish a regulationi which has not specifically been authorized by Congress.
No Administrative Agency has ever won a suit when brought under the APA, including cases fought before the Supremes. The last case was ruled on by the Rehnquist court. I have legal citations going back years, if anyone is interested:
It is time to go on the offensive with this offensive agency.
iluveyw@aol.com
It seems that Lisa’s news for us has made us a bit glum. Do keep in mind that Senator Rockefeller will reintroduce his legislation that requires a two-year moratorium on Lisa’s ruling. After the new Congress arrives, EPA will most likely lose the authority to regulate GHGs. The more that Lisa is in the news, the more likely that coal producing states will elect Republican senators in November. Illinois, Missouri and West Virginia are three states where EPA powers are a key issue. There are more.
Mike writes:
“(NOTE: As a former energy analyst, there is a LOT I can write about the tectonically structured “deregulation” of the California power market, which completely contradicts the popular mythology of that period as constructed by the major media… – Mike)”
Go for it!
Steve in SC, you missed the word ‘voluntary’ to make it not a threat. — John M Reynolds
Instead of decreasing manmade co2 we should be increasing it to further green the biosphere. If co2 is a toxin then so is water.
If we really want to help reduce the ‘melting’ ice caps and reduce temperatures we need to reduce our soot output.
[snip OTT, see policy page]
Witnesses for the Defense of CO2: (in no special order, and spelling approximate)
Lindzin, Pilke, Watts, McIntyre, Christie, Monckton, Spenser, Singer, et al
Hostile Witnesses: Gore, Patchy, et al
Lie Detector Tests: NOAA/NCDC: Karl, Menne, et al
NASA/GISS: Hansen et al
“Every time you see a yellow balloon, remember this day.”
Add a Monckton smilie face.
Lisa Jackson was head of the DEP in NJ and virtually ruined the economy of the state along with our two progressive governors. We were happy when she left NJ as she instituted all kinds as radical environmental rules and requirements including a requirement that business purchase carbon credits to do business. Needless to say, industry and wealth vacated the state big time leaving us with a bigger financial problem. Our new governor is working to revive the economy but it is difficult given the policies of the Obama administration.
When the progressives took over 8 years ago New Jersey was one of the richest states either 1 0r 2. With the help of Lisa Jackson we were turned into one of the states with the largest per capita debt.
She does not care how much damage she creates, as she ruins the entire federal economy.
NOVEMBER. DEFENESTRATE.