Early Christmas gift from Lisa Jackson: power plant greenhouse gas limits

EPA Agrees to Limit Emissions From Power Plants, Refineries

From the NY Times:  the headline would make it sound like there was some sort of debate going on inside the EPA…

First paragraph:  “Threatened with lawsuits from environmental groups, the Obama administration has agreed to issue another round of greenhouse gas limits for both power plants and refineries — this time through a provision of the Clean Air Act that allows U.S. EPA to require pollution controls at both new and existing facilities.”

I’m sure the Obama administration was quaking in its boots under the unrelenting pressure of environmentalists who threatened to rain down lawsuits.  At least we know now that the polar bear will not longer be a political pawn in this “power grab”.

You can read the story and get worked up, but, on second thought, why ruin your Christmas.

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Discover more from Watts Up With That?

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

109 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Richy C
December 24, 2010 5:46 am

Welcome to our world, the UK has had 13 years of this Socialist bullshite, now the Condems have shown their true colours and are still taking this country down the road to ruin.
Don’t trust politicians as the majority are signed up for the New World order whatever their political persuasion, I fear that the time for direct action is fast approaching

Joel Shore
December 24, 2010 7:18 am

Smokey says:

The near-Great Depression of 1921 was triggered, among other things, by spending during WW I – and was much worse than the current “Great Recession.”

Ah…I was talking about the actual Depression. Not the near-depression of 1921. But, let’s go with your change of topic.

GNP dropped by 24% between 1920 and 1921, much more than in the current decline. Unemployment more than doubled in one year, from 2 million to 4.9 million.

I’m not sure where you get this estimates from. This link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_of_1920%E2%80%9321 says

Estimates for the decline in Gross National Product also vary. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates GNP declined 6.9%, Nathan Balke and Robert J. Gordon estimate a decline of 3.5%, and Christina Romer estimates a decline of 2.4%.

The unemployment rate did increase sharply although the more than doubling comes from one estimate, with another being that it went from 5.2% to 8.7%.

So, to get back to the Depression of 1921. How did we get ourselves out of it so fast, and into the Roaring 20′s?

What follows is the laissez-faire Australian school’s interpretation of reality. However, it has been argued that this interpretation is factually-challenged (from the Wiki cite above):

Libertarian Austrian School historian Thomas Woods argues that President Harding’s laissez-faire economic policies during the 1920-21 recession, combined with a coordinated aggressive policy of rapid government downsizing, had a direct influence (mostly through intentional non-influence) on the rapid and widespread private-sector recovery.[12] Woods argued that, as there existed massive distortions in private markets due to government economic influence related to World War I, an equally massive “correction” to the distortions needed to occur as quickly as possible to realign investment and consumption with the new peace-time economic environment.
Daniel Kuehn’s recent research demonstrates that Woods gets many of the facts of the 1920-21 recession wrong[13]. The most substantial downsizing of government was attributable to the Wilson administration, and occurred well before the onset of the 1920-21 recession. The Harding administration raised taxes in 1921 by expanding the tax base considerably at the same time that it lowered rates. Kuehn also points out that Woods underemphasizes the role the monetary stimulus played in reviving the depressed economy. Since the 1920-21 recession was not characterized by any aggregate demand deficiency, fiscal stimulus was entirely unwarranted.

Henry chance
December 24, 2010 7:23 am

See you in court. This is a tax and they don’t have that authority. We can find a judge to rule on this.
Since these are not science types, The house can call the “pretend scientists” that have been messing up data. James Hansen live on CNN all drama and no science will help the popcorn business.

Amino Acids in Meteorites
December 24, 2010 10:13 am

Two more years of Obamaworld. Then Obamaworld can be undone.

December 24, 2010 10:32 am

Joel Shore – now a cut ‘n’ paste instant Wikipedia expert on economics.
The figures I gave can be found throughout various econ texts and sites. But for Joel’s level of understanding, maybe Santa will bring him Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, to counteract his Das Kapital. My point, which soared clear over Joel’s head, is that his belief that spending more money is the answer to our current problems, which were caused by overspending, is obviously the wrong answer.
More to the point, it is ridiculous. Continued excessive spending is the worst possible ‘solution.’ Excessive spending based on fiat money creation has much more serious consequesnces than if we simply rein in the current wild overspending — which will have to be done sooner or later, and the longer it is put off, the more painful squaeling will be heard.
Furthermore, most of the money printed so far has been completely wasted, by keeping Government Motors assembly line workers employed for only one more year [after which the money is gone – and then what?], and handing out millions to anti-American groups like ACORN so they can continue their voting fraud efforts, and other complete wastes of taxpayer money. Where are the pot holes being filled? Where is the infrastructure being repaired? In fact, it is now admitted that no “shovel ready” projects exist. The basis for this excessive spending was built on that Obama lie, endlessly repeated.
Certainly Obama is the worst president in American history, eclipsing even the completely inept Jimmuh Carter, and über-dope Woodrow Wilson, who did exactly what was necessary to bring about WWII. Obama is not just Steve Urkel. He is an anti_American Steve Urkel.
Now we have a multi-thousand page health care plan, passed without a single Republican vote, and written by a committee’s staff whose Chairman admits he does not even understand it. It was never shown to the public as repeatedly promised, and only shown to Congress the day before the vote; a Congress that exempts itself from it. It was signed by a pathologically lying, cigarette smoking, cheeseburger eating president who never read it, with funding administered by a Treasury chief [and head of the IRS] who blatantly cheated on his income taxes, and who was subsequently rewarded with a Cabinet position. It is overseen by a grossly obese Surgeon General, and expected to be financed by already over-taxed workers whose country is almost completely broke.
That is the mind-set of the Leftist clowns pretending to “fix” the economy by more spending. Those clowns couldn’t collectively find their way to the bathroom, and the head-nodders who approve of their profligate spending only add to the problem.
However, printing $5 trillion in a recession, which is certainly not as severe as 1921, isn’t being done out of ignorance. Obama is just a sock puppet of the world totalitatian clique. Unnecessary spending is a deliberate Cloward-Piven strategy, intended to bring the great U.S.A. down to the pathetic level of the limp-wristed EU, whose citizens are overly dependent on their class-based government, and where a large part of the working age population has never held a job at all.
Making people who are fully capable of working totally dependent on the government gives the government complete control of their lives; they know they must do whatever is necessary to keep their monthly dole coming in. They are serfs, going hat in hand to their betters, who hand out the pittance which keeps them from any hope of ever becoming rich based on their own efforts. That same mind-set is behind every action of the current Administration and its lickspittle supporters.
Anyone who argues that continued spending of $trillions far after a crisis has passed is either an economic illiterate, or they know exactly what they want and how to acheive it. The large majority of Americans do not want bigger government, including nationalized health care, “carbon” taxes, or higher energy costs, or higher personal taxes. But despite the national bitch-slapping of Obama’s policies in last November’s election, the Cloward-Piven bus keeps rolling along. Could this Administration be any more devious?
These people, and their puppets/useful fools do not want America to be great, for their own international ideological reasons. American exceptionalism has provided immense wealth for all. Yes, there is disparity, but disparity is provably a good thing: it is built into every facet of Nature. So long as everyone has the basics, free enterprise and the free market are the only way to acheive greatness. If not, let’s give handicap points based on a basketball team’s record; the worse their record, the more points they get when the game starts. Hey, that would only be “fair.”
Like most real Americans, I want only opportunity –not ‘equality of results’. That way leads straight to national mediocrity, and eventual totalitarian world government: lose/lose. And the puppets demanding ever more spending are Stalin’s “useful idiots” leading us down that ugly and dangerous path.

johnb
December 24, 2010 10:37 am

Late bump and I don’t know if this has been posted already.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9K9R5JO0&show_article=1
EPA is now taking over the Texas Gas Permits as it has decided that Texas was not complying.
What’s interesting is the concept of nullification of bad laws and how the federal government reacts. In the case of Illegal Immigration, as various states produce “Sanctuary Cities,” it has done nothing. In the case of Medical Marijuana, it’s a mixed bag of doing nothing or continuing federal law. In the case of the EPA, it means federal takeover of the relevant state agencies.
Consistent, no. Constitutional, probably not.
Link to explanation and history of Nullification. http://www.tomwoods.com/learn-about-state-nullification/

December 24, 2010 11:52 am

The EPA emissions rules are the first installment of the plan to regulate (control) every aspect of fuels extraction, energy production and consumption. CA is already experimenting with “smart” meters that allow regulators to ration the time of and quantities of gas, water and electricity consumed.
One of the intended (obvious) consequences of the national and state energy policies will be increased numbers of avoidable deaths of the vulnerable children and the elderly. This link is to a news story of increased deaths in the UK from home fuel shortages due to rationing based upon flawed predictions of the severity of winter weather:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/851254-britains-big-freeze-death-toll-hits-300-every-day
Get ready for the battles to prevent government control of energy production and consumption. If we fail to win, many will die prematurely and unnecessarily.

December 24, 2010 2:28 pm

Joel Shore December 24, 2010 at 7:18 am

Man, you are incredible Joel.

1. so extraordinary as to seem impossible: “incredible speed.”
2. not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable: “The plot of the book is incredible.”

Regardless, Merry Christmas and don’t burn all the coal in your stocking all in one sitting!
.

Paul in Sweden
December 24, 2010 7:27 pm

Looking forward to House hearings and litigation by companies & individuals against the EPA where full discovery and rules of evidence will be applied throughout the coming year. 🙂
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions will need to be proven as a toxin and a quantifiable & detrimental influence on global climate. The courts are where CAGW will be measured.
BTW: Virginia Virginia Qui Tam Law.com reports:
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli Appeals Ruling on Civil Investigative Demand to University of Virginia
“Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has asked the Virginia Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the ruling earlier this year quashing his Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) to the University of Virginia. “
http://tinyurl.com/2vfbefv
Cuccinelli_Dec__15_Petition_for_Appeal_on_UVa.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/2wsyjar

1 3 4 5
Verified by MonsterInsights