Our tax dollars at work: Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the EPA has given $1.29 million in grants to various Chinese government agencies.
Why the Endangered Species Act doesn’t work.
[R]adical green groups . . . [are] engaged in an industry whose waste products are fish and wildlife. You and I are a major source of revenue for that industry. The Interior Department must respond within 90 days to petitions to list species under the Endangered Species Act. Otherwise, petitioners like the Center for Biological Diversity get to sue and collect attorney fees from the Justice Department.
And this:
Amos Eno runs the hugely successful Yarmouth, Maine-based Resources First Foundation, an outfit that, among other things, assists ranchers who want to restore native ecosystems. Earlier, he worked at Interior’s Endangered Species Office, crafting amendments to strengthen the law, then went on to direct the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Eno figures the feds could “recover and delist three dozen species” with the resources they spend responding to the Center for Biological Diversity’s litigation.
“The amount of money [Center for Biological Diversity] makes suing is just obscene,” he told me. “They’re one of the reasons the Endangered Species Act has become so dysfunctional. They deserve the designation of eco-criminals.”
Government in action: A bureaucratic fight stalls an oil drill project in Alaska.
The project has put two federal agencies at odds. The Environmental Protection Agency has maintained that a roadless alternative, which would route the pipeline under the Nigliq Channel and use an airstrip instead of a road and bridge, would be less damaging to the reserve’s environment. The Interior Department backs Conoco’s proposal as environmentally preferable.
Our tax dollars for partisan politics: EPA has given millions to environmentalist political activist groups.
And Obama wonders why oil prices are high? Shell has abandoned its oil drilling plans in Alaska after an EPA regulatory board denied it permits. This after the oil company had spent $4 billion over five years developing those plans. To me, the quote below reveals much about the political agenda behind the EPA’s decision:
The Environmental Appeals Board has four members: Edward Reich, Charles Sheehan, Kathie Stein and Anna Wolgast. All are registered Democrats and Kathie Stein was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Will the EPA lose control of greenhouse gas rules?
The article above, written for the journal Science, is clearly on the side of the EPA. Nonetheless, it does outline well the political dynamics of this regulatory battle between the EPA and Congress.
The war between Texas and the EPA continues: Texas is accusing the EPA of doing bad research about gas drilling.
This is a good sign: The Senate vote on restricting the power of the EPA has been postponed by Harry Reid as he struggles to get Democrat votes.
The top five Obama regulations that American businesses hate most. Note that 3 of 5 concern the EPA.
Just what the new space industry needs, more regulations! The EPA has decided it has the right to regulate perchlorate, a chemical used for rocket fuel as well as fireworks and other explosives.
Laws matter: The federal appeals court in Washington, DC, today blocked EPA’s takeover of Texas carbon-emmission regulation.
The war between Texas and the EPA over carbon-emission rules heats up.
Power grab! The EPA has taken from Texas regulators the permitting process for air quality on major industrial facilities.
Want to know what’s been killing our honeybees? It appears the EPA has known all along and looked the other way: A leaked EPA document shows that it knowingly allowed use a pesticide, despite warnings from its own scientists that it would kill honeybees.
“Elections have consequences.” EPA suddenly delays new rules governing industry emissions.
Who needs laws when you can simply regulate? The EPA moves to bypass Congress.
Enviromental regulation takes another hit! The EPA policy chief most in favor of heavy regulation has stepped down.
Thank god for small blessings. The climate talks in China this past week are limping towards a deadlock, with no new agreements. It appears that the biggest problem are disagreements between China and the U.S.
Personally, I love how this quote from the article so nicely illustrates the totalitarian nature of many climate activists and their organizations:
Currently, the World Resources Institute is proposing the White House abandon legislative means and rely on the existing Clean Air Act to make emissions reductions administratively.
In other words, if the elected Congress of the United States is unwilling to pass restrictions (because a majority of the people of the United States oppose them), then the government should ignore the people’s wishes and impose those restrictions, without permission.
Ugh. The less power these environmental dictators have, the better for everyone else.
Proof that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has more to do with propaganda and politics than regulation: “EPA funnels taxpayer money to dozens of liberal community activist groups.” I especially like this one:
A grant recipient in Appalachia — the heart of coal country — will teach households in Franklin County, Ky., how to reduce household greenhouse gas emissions. The project called “Lighten Up, Frankfort!” will use the book “The Low Carbon Diet” to guide households through a series of actions to reduce their household energy use. The actions include “empowering” people to “lose unwanted pounds.”
The EPA itself believes that its effort to regulate carbon dioxide under its Prevention of Significant Deterioration program could “slow construction nationwide for years”. And what would this accomplish? Global temperatures would be reduced a whopping 0.0015 degrees! Key quote:
“It is clear throughout the country, PSD (Prevention of Significant Deterioration) permit issuance would be unable to keep up with the flood of incoming applications, resulting in delays, at the outset, that would be at least a decade or longer, and that would only grow worse over time as each year, the number of new permit applications would exceed permitting authority resources for that year.”
How dare you succeed! The EPA has fined SpaceX $45,600 for hazardous waste violations.
