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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Obama finds himself in a difficult position. His financial master expected to cream the profits from a carbon tax, thus paving the way for world governance, but Obama has failed to deliver. Obama also knows the EPA is not going to do much any time soon, as the effort will get bogged down in litigation.
Following Climategate, the whole world knows that CAGW is a myth and even if Obama had proved to be the popular leader hoped for he would have trouble getting a carbon tax through. I suspect that if his party does badly in the coming Senate elections he won’t be re-elected president in 2012.
Right now the EPA is going after the Greenest of Farmers-Amish because of manure
effluents SO now what? This cannot continue as the productive people may just
‘Go Galt’ on the Drone Class….
I fear too- a cold nasty winter….
No Coal for you!…
‘El Presidente for Life Obama’ is going to clean up the air but he can’t keep the borders secure, or end the Great Recession when we mortgage our great grand children with a Trillion Dollars we don’ have, or give us all better Health Care, or visit the Gulf of Mexico and look like he’s doing something to clean up the beaches, or pay old people their Social Security in the future? I don’ tink soooooo! Sounds like som’ting I hear Fidel say 50 years ago!
So will the EPA wake up and start regulating water? I mean, really–it’s the MAJOR GHG (I think Henry chance got his list of GHGs from the EPA).
Just think–with water all tied up, they will REALLY have us by the throats. It would be far worse than regulating CO2 anyday! And while I shouldn’t be mentioning it (on the off chance they’d read it here and pursue water regulation), I doubt anybody from the EPA ever visits this site.
Jack the Farmer says:
August 4, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Did you see the article, yesterday, where the EPA is going to try and regulate ‘dust’ on farms?….they should come to my farm…..I have something for them
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Jack, many of the farmers I have talked to have a similar point of view.
Go to the NoNais.org site and look at the Henshaw Incident. For other information see http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/
NoNais.org has a list of other useful sites.
Here is a fundamental truth: If a politician can convince the electorate to give their loyalty to him ( or her) then by definition he (or she) has subverted the right and proper loyalty of the electorate to the Constitution. Once that happens ( as it did in the last Presidential election ), then we are well and truly doomed to eventual dictatorship. The mechanics of that dictatorship are enforced thru the bureaucracy, which is ( at it’s top levels), composed of those who are loyal to the politician who appoints them. To change this situation, requires the removal of those who give their loyalty to the person, instead of to the institution that is the USA and that is described and constituted by ( I recommend reviewing the definition of the word “constitute” ) the laws and ideals of the People.
The US Military (past and present ) is well aware of this, and it’s why our Oath is to the Constitution and not to any individual or party.
Eric says: “I voted for Obama…A brilliant guy who has nary a clue.”
If he’s so brilliant, how come Harvard was forced to seal his transcript?
_Jim says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Gail Combs August 4, 2010 at 12:54 pm
…
And the US government has been waging war on the independent American farmer ever since.
Could one say that you have failed to show just _who_ and or _how_ ‘they’ would benefit by this action of winning the war on the ‘independent American farmer’?
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How about LOOKING at the reference I cited for once???
Al Gore point blank said the plan was to get rid of US Agriculture. My County Extension Agent was at the ceremony and heard him say it. The Ag Journal, Billings, Montana backs up his eyewitness statement: “At a recent ceremony at the White House, Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore let slip what many have long believed was his real intention as regards to U.S. agriculture.
“While presenting a national award to a Colorado FFA member, Gore asked the student what his/her life plans were. Upon hearing that the FFA member wanted to continue on in production agriculture, Gore reportedly replied that the young person should develop other plans because our production agriculture is being shifted out of the U.S. to the Third World.”
Here are some of the references from the article I cited. You can read the article and check out the rest of the references like you should of done several months ago the first time you picked this nit.
[1] A.V. Krebs, The Corporate Reapers: The Book of Agribusiness. Essential Books, Washington DC, 1992, pp 289-299.
[2] Agriculture in an Expanding Economy: A Statement by the Research Committee of the Committee for Economic Development, 1945. Republished by AstroLogos Books, New York. http://www.AstroLogos.org (Books on Demand)
[3] An Adaptive Program for Agriculture: A Statement on National Policy by the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development. The Committee for Economic Development. July 1962. http://www.normeconomics.org/adaptive.html
[4] “A Farewell to Farms,” Time Magazine. July 20, 1962. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896357,00.html
[5] “Reorienting Agricultural Research Back to the Farm” by E. Ann Clark, Crop Science, University of Guelph, Ontario Canada. Presented at Practical Partnerships. A New England Sustainable Agricultural Conference, November 1997, Portland, Maine. http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/research/homepages/eclark/maine.htm
[6] Joel Dyer, Harvest of Rage: Why Oklahoma City Is Only the Beginning, Westview Press, 1998.
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[36] Testimony of Michael R. Taylor, JD, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services before Subcommittee of Domestic Policy Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, US House of Representatives, July 29, 2009, p. 8.
http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2009/07/t20090716a.html
[37] William Sperber, Video of “Global Food Protection: A New Organization Is Needed” presented at Food Import Safety Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison: http://mediasite.engr.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Viewer/?peid=a3f4fe4f0b75482f9f7ec0cd68ff3462
[38] “Cargill Executive Cites Single Regulatory Agency as Necessary” The Food Safety Consortium Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2009.
http://www.uark.edu/depts/fsc/news.current.htm
Pamela Gray says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:30 pm
‘I have that kind of dust too! Wonder if city folks now what kind of dust we are talking about.’
Oh, you know, dust dust. The kind that Gail Combs will have to put a mask on front of her cows along with the GHG scrubber on the other end to protect the environment type of dust.
Henry chance says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:30 pm
GHG’s
NOX,COX,SOX, CH4 and CFC.
________________________________
You forgot the really really big one WATER.
About the only good thing I can say about this is that it might provide grounds for a carefully crafted lawsuit disputing the validity of the AGW theory.
Oh and Jim if that one reference was not enough about the threat to independent farmers:
The goal within the WTO, dating from 2000, is to extend patent laws over all plants and animals (Article 27.3b)..”
http://www.africafocus.org/docs07/bio0712.php
On 21st May, 2003, the European Patent Office in Munich granted a patent to Monsanto .., even though plants are not patentable in European Law. }http://www.countercurrents.org/en-shiva270404.htm
“In the EU, there is now a list of ‘official’ vegetable varieties. Seed that is not on the list cannot be ‘sold’ to the ‘public’ .” http://www.realseeds.co.uk/terms.html”
In fact, the U.S. projections for the current year are that 53% of its wheat crop, 47% of cotton, 42% of rice, 35% of soybeans, and 21% of corn will be exported. This has only been made possible by the heavy subsidies and the removal of trade barriers or QRs in the developing countries.
http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2002/0202food.html
55 per cent of the crops needed to feed the human race are now grown by just ten corporations. The biggest players in this monopoly game are Bayer, Dow, Dupont, Syngenta (once Novartis), and Monsanto…
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_n3_v50/ai_21031832/pg_9
Food Policy in an Era of Corporate Power
“Cargill is the second largest private corporation in the United States….
http://co.blaine.id.us/vertical/Sites/%7BDDCFF136-A071-4998-93F2-2DDE77274A17%7D/uploads/%7BC08DFE30-212F-441B-BFB0-CDB149283710%7D.PDF
Regs in the UK:
April 3 2008 ~ “paperwork and restrictions on what farmers can do is a problem – it takes up around 60 per cent of Mr Lawton’s time”
http://www.warmwell.com/aboutfmd08.html#farmland
December 21 2007 ~ “… a death-blow at much of what remains of Britain’s hill-farming. http://www.warmwell.com/aboutfmdaug07new.html
EU meeting states intent to get rid of small farms: 19.http://www.i-sis.org.uk/savePolishCountryside.php
http://www.naissucks.com/index.php?con=4th_Component
Investigating price-fixing:Supermarket sweep http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11289136
Fast Facts of Corporate Consolidation of Industrial Agriculture
http://www.ifg.org/pdf/indust_ag-fas=_facts_consol.pdf
Agriculture and Monopoly capital: http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/7895421-1.html
OCM Leads Opposition to JBS Swift Acquisition http://www.competitivemarkets.com/index.php?Itemid=9&id=50&option=com_content&task=view
Anti-Corporate Farming Laws in the Heartland http://www.celdf.org/AntiCorporateFarmingLawsinHeartland/tabid/130/Default.aspx
American Farm Groups Demand Reform of US Ag policy http://lists.iatp.org/listarchive/archive.cfm?id=81749
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I have lots more references.
Corporate consolidation of the food supply is just as dangerous as Government control of Energy.
OK, this is a political comment, ( I am not an American ), but hasn’t the President just shouldered all of the blame for any, ( er, read that as the destruction of the American economy ), adverse effects upon himself?
I think this is suicidal politics, so there must be a huge feather bed to catch him when the dust settles.
Apologies in advance to the mods.
I will sic my Yama on him. http://www.boneroom.com/skulls/tibetanskulls.html Mine is not one of the ones shown but is similar to #45. Yama is the Tantric Buddhist god of death. You can go look it up on the net if you are curious. One of the purposes of these was to remind people that they are mortal. The skulls were from especially devout people who had died. Before you go yuk, remember that the Vatican is all full of dead body parts from various saints. To each religion their own. I think our Wimp in Chief would faint if he saw a real dead body.
If memory serves me correctly, there are lessers at the EPA who did NOT want to go down the C02 toxic ruling road.
And it was Jackson who defended and admitted to approval of the dispersants in the Gulf.
Lisa’s Waterloo in the Gulf?
In appearnces of operating under a double standard, she could be facing a new Congress eager to toss a bone to the public.
We live in a bureaucratic state, and maybe it is time to wake up and deal with that problem.
Well I’ve said it before; and I’m not too bashful to say it again:- Anyone who seriously proposes to tax Carbon FOR ANY REASON, needs to be locked up in an institution for the criminally insane, for the rest of their natural life.
We have an energy secretary who is going to let microbes and yeast provide us with fuel energy. Last time I checked; even they don’t work for free; so they are not going to volunteer to be Obamas’s neo-slave force; so they too need to be provided with food and energy; so sans fossils; we are back to old sol and his one kW/m^2 air mass one maximum.
Well excuse me; I exaggerate; that is actually Trenberth’s 168 W/m^2
So just how does that Cuckoo Chu plan to get all the solar energy to his little flea circusses to knit hydrocarbon molecules for him ?
Speaking of Harvard; there’s a learned Study that says that Harvard is the number one ranked University in the whole world; and the University spends about $100 K per year on its students (each).
So WHO paid for that for our Maxi Leader.
But even Harvard doesn’t hold a candle to MIT; which is certainly ranked in the top 20; maybe top ten; but is clearly the leader in $ spent per student per year at about $240,000 a pop; hell no not MY Pop !
Of course Universities don’t print money so somebody or somebody’s estate put up that money to mostly waste on a lot of people who should have dropped out based on their results.
I believe my Alma Mater is ranked about #86; and luckily they didn’t 86 me. They also are the world’s highest ranked University in terms of world ranking per dollar spent per year per student. In fact three out of the four major Universities of New Zealand are ranked the world leaders in educational ranking per dollar spent per student per year. Well yes I knew we were poor; but didn’t realize we were that poor.
I’ll bring in the full report because it has some interesting numbers. Stanford isn’t ranked that highly; although way ahead of my AM; and as I recall it spends somewhat more than Harvard; but somewhat less than Yale.
I believe Harvard is #1 followed by Yale/Cambridge/Oxford; in some order I couldn’t separate; but Cambridge and Oxford spend way less than Harvard. I think Cambridge was actually ranked #2
Hey if I had our maxi leader as a product; I would seal the records too.
I was thinking about cow dung dust. Makes great rose tea. All you have to do is have a dirt manure pile and crowd the cows in. Let em poop for awhile then kick em back out to green pastures. Let the stuff dry and rake it into a fairly fine consistency. Package it up and when needed, add to water. Rose tea. Pour near the roots and you will have fabulous roses. I could send some to DC in little homemade tea bags if you think it would help. Since the Dems are full of s**t, my rose tea oughta be just their cup of tea.
Eric says:
August 4, 2010 at 12:15 pm
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.
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Eric, I think Obama has royally screwed up everything he’s touched. I can’t think of one thing he has touched that he didn’t make worse.
Best we can hope for is he gets in a few hundred more vacations and golf games.
Alan Simpson not from Friends of the Earth says:
August 4, 2010 at 3:48 pm
OK, this is a political comment, ( I am not an American ), but hasn’t the President just shouldered all of the blame for any, ( er, read that as the destruction of the American economy ), adverse effects upon himself?
I think this is suicidal politics, so there must be a huge feather bed to catch him when the dust settles.
_______________________________________________
Unfortunately you are correct. How it all works is explained here:
Revolving Doors? A Network Analysis of Corporate Officers and
U.S. Government Officials: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/gfdavis/Papers/etzion_davis_08.pdf
A Matter of Trust: HOW THE REVOLVING DOOR UNDERMINES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT
http://www.cleanupwashington.org/documents/RevovDoor.pdf
Here is an example of how it works: http://www.psrast.org/ecologmons.htm
This is also a very interesting article by the guy who foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union: http://www.impactlab.net/2008/05/10/what-in-the-world-is-going-on/
All regulatory agencies are governed by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) US Code 5, Sections 552-559. It governs how and when they can write regulations. Specifically, it says that if a regulation significantly affects the parties being regulated, it cannot be implemented without a specific law from Congress.
It is time to go on the offensive with this rouge agency. The first business affected by this action must sue in Federal District court for an injunction. NO party who has ever brought a suit under the APA has ever lost a case against the government, including with the Rehnquist Supreme Court.
I have numerous citations if anyone is interested in pursuing this: iluveyw@aol.com
This is an interesting political analysis:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/28/climate-change-movement-harry-reid-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html
“Future historians will pinpoint Democratic Sen. Harry Reid’s energy legislation, released Tuesday, as the moment that the political movement of global warming entered an irreversible death spiral. It is kaput! Finito! Done!
This is not just my read of the situation; it is also that of Paul Krugman, …”
Henry chance says:
August 4, 2010 at 1:30 pm
GHG’s
NOX,COX,SOX, CH4 and CFC.
You forgot the most dangerous and obnoxious GHG: EPA.
The problem is that when the Republicans get in power they don’t clean house as effectively as the Democrats do. –
Or at all. I’m thinking Bush keeping all fifty federal attourneys. Like right now the Democrats in California are seeking a compromise with State GOP. They want a tax increase, that first has to pass the legislature, then has to be approved by the public through a vote. Smart legislators would take advantage of this leverage.
Personally, if I were King California Republican, I’d trade them tort reform for a tax increase with sunset provisions. Specificly I’d block NGO’s from bringing environmental court challenges. That’s the state EPA’s job anyway. The unions and Sierra club can go pound sand.
I’m sorry to say that he simply doesn’t understnad how things work. A brilliant guy who has nary a clue. – No. The word you are searching for is “stupid” or maybe “boneheaded”. Anything but brilliant.
Here try this, “a boneheaded guy who has nary a clue.”
See how much better that works?
FrankK, it’s not likely that as many dems see through AGW, since they are far more likely to trust the media, the EPA, the education system, GreenPeace, WWF, etc. all of whom are singing from the same choirbook. – I call it suffering from cranial rectum inversion.
Jobs First – Yes on 23
The Federal Government appears determined to thwart the will of the citizenry. During the past two weeks we saw Obama and a federal judge usurp the will of the people of Arizona, and it happened again today in California.
From The Declaration of Independence