Posted by Tina
There’s no denying that the Environmental Protection agency has overstepped it’s authority over the past few years. Hopefully we will soon have some relief from the more egregious madates and regulations soon. The Washington Examiner has the details:
The Environmental Protection Agency could see its budget reduced $164 million from last year and have its staffing level drop to the lowest point since 1989.
The Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill released Tuesday would fund the EPA at $7.98 billion, almost $300 million less than what President Obama asked for in his budget request. That includes the agency’s regulatory budget being dropped $43 million from fiscal 2016 and $187 million below what Obama asked for in his fiscal 2017 request.
The total appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of Interior, EPA, U.S. Forest Service, Indian Health Service and other agencies is a total of about $32.1 billion. That’s $64 million less than last year and $1 billion below Obama’s request.
Interior Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert issued a statement:
“The EPA’s overreach continues to cause economic harm, and this bill denies funding for more job-killing regulators while providing necessary resources to effective programs that actually improve the environment and protect our natural resources.”
The bill includes provisions to block some EPA regulations: 1. The implementation of the Clean Power Plan, 2. New methane regulations, 3. The regulation of lead in ammunition and fishing tackle and, 4. The implementation of the Waters of the United States rule (currently blocked by a federal court.)
The bill does increase spending for authorities that cope with wildfires, lead contamination in drinking water, and the National Park Service and includes money and grants for improving drinking water infrastructure and drinking water systems. Follow the link for the exact figures.
Under the direction of Barack Obama the EPA has overstepped it’s authority. It’s about time the Congress re-established it’s authority and the balance of power. A little common sense must be applied to sustain human beings as well as the environment.
The proposal already needs an ammendment!
Investors.com:
People are trying to too hard to be innovative and zealots at the EPA are making big problems in the process. We all need to slow down, test this stuff out before forcing companies to comply and consumers to buy.
” … and includes money and grants for improving drinking water infrastructure and drinking water systems.”
Now go find out how many committee members have been feted by Nestle’s. Five bucks says a Nestle lobbiest the wrote language in it.
This is what comes of putting morons, under-staffed morons, in the Congress.
Ah Libby how quickly you scream “moron.” If you don’t like it that must mean morons are in charge. But…your not an elitist bigot!
How about the moronic EPA regs that your so-called “brainy” types insisted upon that put thousands of people out of work and caused the closing of coal powered plants? The intended outcome could have actually been achieved without the losses IF a reasonable time frame for implementation had been allowed. But zealots and control freaks don’t care about people losing their jobs as long as your inane desires are met right now. Cruel and thoughtless is what it is.
You could be right about the lobbyists involved, although I don’t know why Nestle would give a rip about fishing tackle. In any case lobbying isn’t limited to Nestle or coal companies. Out of control draconian levels of “concern” regulations have been written by greenies and organic foods lobbyists unconcerned about the damage they do to jobs and the economy. How many of those have investments in alternative energy companies and the organic food movement. (Organic foods are subject to dioxins too regardless…dioxins are both naturally occurring and organic)
The time to change the budget of the EPA was last Fall in the budget bill, but Paul Ryan gave the Demwits everything they wanted.
Since the left uses and abuses every good thing it probably would have been better to never create the EPA. Thanks Nixon, I know you meant well.
The real problem I see with agencies like the EPA is they are being allowed to make law. In my opinion this is clearly a violation of the Constitution. People argue that this is not the case because Congress passes bills that give agencies the power to write their own regulations so their actions are sanctioned by Congress and are, therefore, Constitutional. However, I believe this kind of legislation should not be allowed. How is it reasonable for Congress to approve regulations introduced into law by an agency of the Executive Branch prior to the laws actually being written. It is basically Congress surrendering its power (and therefore its responsibility) to another branch of government. I don’t see anything in the Constitution that allows this.
Clearly it would be unreasonable to think that the content of all laws should originate in Congress. These agencies do have some level of expertise in the area that they oversee. However allowing agencies to create their own laws has become, as we have seen over and over again, a political tool instead of a means to expedite the work of the agency.
These agencies are still part of the Executive Branch and as such should only have the power to propose law. All laws proposed by these agencies should be made public, reviewed by Congress, and voted on before they become law. Granted, Congress currently has the capability of changing any law or regulation put in place by an agency but that is the reverse of what was intended and it is more difficult to reverse a law than put one into place. Also, during the time it takes to reverse a law there may significant irreversible damage done; case in point Obamacare.
Ditto.
Congress passes a law that says emissions must be reduced to thus-and-such level. The EPA devises regulations to make that happen. Regulations are not laws. And I do believe the courts have slapped those EPA wrists, and recently, for over-reaching.
So it is all working more or less the way it’s supposed to. You guys are always in a tizzy, based largely on an inadequate knowledge of the facts. Get knowledgeable, would you please?
Useful idiot!
Libby: “Regulations are not laws.”
Horsefeathers! Just try not complying with one of them.
The idiocy behind some of the laws and regulations is part of the problem. The big green lobby has had entirely too much influence based on a lot of hysteria and mostly unproven “science.” Often the so-called fixes they push end up doing more harm than good.
I know how you hate lobbyists meddling, Libby.
Let’s hope they get rid of the carbon taxes and regulations.
And Miss Tina, we know all about the trans-gendered but what about the trans-phylum???
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/05/fred-reed/phylum-fluidity/
And what’s a trans-springbok to do???
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/05/walter-e-williams/say/
What do the liberals who infest this blog have to say about that?
I just realized I am a trans-species bigot. Whatever am I to do? I like being at the top of the food chain.
“I’ve known it since I was a little girl. I…sir, I am a squid trapped in a woman’s body. I’m trans-phylum, sir.””
Bob, do kids like these have parents? Imagine being so hippied out, drugged out, or brain dead that you praise your child for thinking she’s a giant squid.
The world has gone mad. New York City recognizes 31 gender identities, but if the squid is any indication, that number will rise…forever. Facebook now recognizes 56 categories.
LUV Walter Williams: “You might ask, “Williams, why in the world would you want to call yourself a springbok?” The reason is simple. There is nothing in the Internal Revenue Code that says springboks have a federal tax obligation. If government officials were to demand taxes, I would ask the U.S. Department of Justice to intercede, plus they would be reported to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”
Williams is on to something. I may claim to be a springbok before it’s over.
Off topic.
Did another senator, besides Cruz, just grow a pair, finally?
Tom Cotton Goes Off on Senate Floor: Normally, I Can Ignore ‘Bitter, Vulgar, Incoherent Ramblings’ of Harry Reid — but Not Today:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/25/tom-cotton-goes-off-on-senate-floor-normally-i-can-ignore-bitter-vulgar-incoherent-ramblings-of-harry-reid-but-not-today/
You could get me to consider your view if you didn’t right off lie. There have been no thousands losing jobs. At some point there may be hundreds. But I find this argument particularly galling in that if the plant owners wanted to lay off thousands to enhance their profit, you would not object. So you can take that “concern” and put it where the sun don’t shine.
But you make our positions very clear. I am an environmentalist (and that does cost us peasants some); you are a profiteer (which also costs us peasants, but we don’t even get clean tap water out of the deal).
February 2015, Daily Caller:
“I find this argument particularly galling in that if the plant owners wanted to lay off thousands to enhance their profit, you would not object.”
“Enhancing profits” is a fun way for you to describe survival born of necessity. it also shows how incredibly ignorant and thoughtless you are.
Businesses hire and keep employees as long as they can afford to do so. They prefer to keep them because it means business continues to be good.
It’s hard enough to sustain a business under normal fluctuations in the market and changes in consumer choices without the government coming along and intentionally killing your business.
There was no need to do this. The fractional “improvement” in the air is not even discernible. this was ALL POLITICAL. You greenies should be ashamed for being so unaware and unconcerned about the damage that follows in your wake.
Ah, where to begin?
The American Action Forum? Did you really think I would not look them up? A front for the profiteers.
And then I go looking for the origin date of the coal emission regs. I know I wasn’t 2008. Something else happened that year that probably, also, put a crimp in the business. I actually did not know that coal burning is the number one polluter of the planet. I mean, I knew it was up there, but number one? Sorry, Tina, the coal miners have to get into another line of work.
Coal is a thang of the past.
Ethanol is a small engine killer and it harms newer cars as well.
The EPA is on the hit list for the Kochs who are the countries largest polluters. You know better than to pretend otherwise.
Not a peep about the Shell 90K fresh new spilled gallons? All the polluted rivers in USA? f course not norcals rivers are still decent!
Everybody is pissed about Flint but never asks why the Flint River is so toxic?
The CEO of Nestle says Humans do not have the right to water.
Water is the new oil.
But hey! lets allow industries to do whatever they want!
http://www.desmogblog.com/koch-brothers-behind-push-dismantle-epa
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/koch-industries-behind-the-fight-to-gut-the-epa/
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/77061/koch-brothers-connected-to-house-committee-attacking-epa
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/27542-koch-funded-group-compares-proposed-epa-regulations-to-cia-torture
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/08/27/myths-and-facts-about-the-koch-brothers/200570
https://secure3.convio.net/lcv/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2069
You are shrilling for the Koch Brothers.
It doesn’t matter if the Koch brothers are in favor of ending the EPA. they are citizens with as much right to speak as any other citizen. You think big green is about clean water and air but it’s about big green bucks. Front Page Magazine:
What a slimy piece of excrement former big oil Al Gore is. He and that other big money mouthpiece and investor.
Breitbart Big Government:
Then there’s always the wealthy Hollywood useful idiots like De Caprio who jetted his way to NYC to accept a greenie award. Oh yeah, they really “care” about air and water.
There’s your fascism my friend. You better wake up and smell the big green oooze before it overtakes us all in one big worldwide tyrannical scam for money, power and control.
Tina, why are you so rabid about this? You got stock in Big Oil?
Sell it. Put the money into green. But then, that would be risky. At this point there is no telling which greens will evolve into Big Green.
So maybe you’re in a tizzy over the threat to your security? That makes sense. But you realize this bars you from membership in the “America of entreneurs and risk-takers” club that you will crow over. Alas, you and the coal miners were born in the age of peak fossil. We will be in the history books.
Now, some people, the socialistly minded, are thinking about the coal miners. It’s unduly sentimental, actually, but there must some way, some new economy contrived to preserve traditional life in Appalachia (religion and guns, bum what are ya gonna do). We’re working on it. And if we can just remove the morons from the Congress ….
I’m rabid because I hate deceit. I’m rabid because I hate operators who eschew making an honest dollar to jump on board a huge scam. I hate manipulation of science. I hate the propaganda lies taught to kids in school. I hate the slime that underlies this movement…THATS why I’m so rabid.
As for investment I imagine I’m invested in both alternative and traditional energy stocks…you probably are, or have been, too. Your nasty covert intimation that money drives my commitment to exposing and discrediting the slime is more indicative of your narrow, hateful mind than it is reality about my intentions.
I’ve already taken a big risk (for me), Libby, to the tune of over $300,000.00. That’s a pretty hefty risk for a budding small business owner and nothing I’d bet you’ve ever done. Through the years I’ve hired dozens of college students and awarded the with bonuses that allowed them to pay tuition and books for the coming year. What have you contributed along similar lines?
” Alas, you and the coal miners were born in the age of peak fossil.”
Old news that turns out to be false. NPR:
“…the socialistly minded, are thinking about the coal miners. It’s unduly sentimental, actually, but there must some way, some new economy contrived to preserve traditional life in Appalachia…”
The truly compassionate “socially minded” would offer miners the opportunity to retrain BEFORE commencing with the intentional collapse of their livlihood! You people are a bunch of phony opportunistic control freaks who don;t think about the negative outcomes or the people effected!
You are also incredibly ignorant. do you have any idea how many products are made of fossil fuels? Hospitals, the most at risk entity I can think of off the top of my head, rely on plastics. Every single medical procedure relies on equipment and supplies made from petroleum. Petroleum is more than the gasoline or carbon backed electricity in your car. Petroleum is vital to our modern existence. You “socially minded” morons should expand your thinking before you go about destroying what has become the stuff of life for millions of people across the globe and supporting the fraudulent green investment fraud that’s lining the pockets of corrupt green politicians and investors.
If the people care about their own well being and that of their neighbors they will take a deep breath, allow alternatives to evolve into viable, useful sources naturally, and throw the moronic green money grubbing zealots out of government forever!
Yes money grubbing. A money grubber doesn’t care HOW he makes (steals) his money or who is hurt in the process, hence coal miners losing their jobs is acceptable. On a larger scale left zealots like George Soros makes a billion bucks for himself by short selling the pound sterling. Then there’s people on the green train who quietly make money from coal in China while putting American miners out of a job.
There’s a difference between making money legitimately by providing good products at affordable prices (and responding to legitimate problems) and using the power of government to destroy one industry so you can make money on the alternative. Disgusting! Especially since at the same time these radical lefties also try to destroy freedom and capitalism and sell big government control (socialism or democratic socialism).
God, you really are scared. All I can suggest that you consider, just consider the possibility, that you don’t have any reason to be … certainly not this scared.
And wean yourself off the Fox. Seriously, you need to do it.
“God you really are scared”
You’re ridiculous, Libby. I suspect it’s because you know I’m accurate in my descriptions.
Yes, Tina. But then we have to get back to the human thing. Do you really think that greenies’ entrepreneurial machinations are any worse than, say, those of Standard Oil back in those good old days. Frankly, the greenies are really gonna have to exert themselves to top that.
And you cannot deny the earth’s resources are finite. Replacements are going to have to be found for all that stuff you are so scared of losing. To start now is the only sensible thing to do.
(But the Queen of Denial will not capitulate!)
” Do you really think that greenies’ entrepreneurial machinations are any worse than, say, those of Standard Oil back in those good old days.”
I’m not sure I know what you mean by “those good old days” with respect to the discovery of oil but I can assure you that a giant scam was not perpetrated on the world in order to invent opportunities to make money, i.e., the carbon credit scam. Nor was there an oil lobby making deals with a government agency (EPA) to force prices high and eliminate the competition. (I’m certain there are green alternative people and companies that are honestly attempting to provide alternatives; it’s not the same thing but they will have to find a way to do it without subsidies, or with equally onerous taxation before we’ll know whether they are actually sensible and viable – government intervention in both industries blocks the natural equalizers of supply and demand)
Oil use grew (And fortunes were made/jobs were created) because of the natural movers of supply and demand and risk and reward. Eventually, oil became a source for incredible advancement in materials, technology, and exploration. We would never have gone to the moon without the discovery of oil. As negative issues arose companies worked to innovate to be cleaner and less polluting. Perfection will never be reality of any energy source, as we have seen even as the alternatives have been advanced.
We should pursue technologies, avoid the scary hype, and progress at an even pace if we are to accomplish the best possible outcome. We should also abandon the myth that alternatives, other than nuclear, are anywhere near becoming a viable alternative in terms of meeting demand or filling the economic need.
“And you cannot deny the earth’s resources are finite.
In most cases a problem for generations so far in the future it is ridiculous for us to concern ourselves. Once again discovery, creativity, and innovation will have to rule the day…and maybe a bit of divine intervention.
“all that stuff you are so scared of losing”
How the heck do you come up with these strange assumptions?
Are you prepared to force future generations to live in mud huts just so you can be right?
“To start now is the only sensible thing to do.”
Scientists and innovators are way ahead of you. Tell me, why do YOU worry so?
“But the Queen of Denial will not capitulate!”
(Just couldn’t resist ruining a reasonable conversation!)
Capitulate?
To what…or whom?
I’m in favor of clean, adequate, energy sources at reasonable prices and the pursuit of innovative ways to produce said clean energy. I hate government force; it messes with jobs and the economy and produces opportunistic jerks out to use any lie to make big buck’s for themselves deceitfully.
What’s the prob?
Of interest: Former top Obama energy official calls EPA’s Clean Power Plan ‘all pain, no gain’
Of further interest: Why Solar Energy Is Bad for the Environment:
See also here.
Eleven acres? Eleven?
And since when do you care what a private property owner does on his property. Can’t have both ways … but you keep trying.
Touchy touchy!
I posted the story without comment.
You have to admit, however, that all of those greenies, in their hippie dippie days, had fits over clear cutting for logging purposes and spoke often of ruining/defacing the pristine wilderness with “scars.” Hypocrites and phonies, they are!
The truth is I don’t care that a property owner would choose to do this. So another of your assumptions is flat out wrong!
Isn’t it the greens who want it both ways…use this type of complaint to create animus against industries they don’t like (and have to compete with) and then go do the same damaging things things themselves.
And what kind of human being manipulates science and manufactures fear to make money? It’s a sick business for those on that end of it.
And…since when has it been a problem for a lefty that local neighbors protest? I’d think you’d be out there with a sign!
“I’m not sure I know what you mean by “those good old days” with respect to the discovery of oil ….”
Well you need to go find out. Rockefeller and his cronies, they were some good ol’ boys. Wrecked domestic AND international havoc, mongo government subsidies from day one, and that was a hundred years ago, which is a lot of years to be coddled by the poor oblivious taxpayer.
And … I was hearing something on the radio today about water troubles in Colorado, saying that we might make progress if we could get intransigents to think in terms of future generations, you know, make sacrifices for the progeny?
Wouldn’t work with you, would it?