Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant (Update1)

bloomberg link only ^ | Oct. 16 | By Jim Efstathiou Jr.

[cookcounty]

Is he going to wear a mask when he speaks? You could capture a lot of carbon emissions that way.

[cookcounty]

Stop breathing! The weeds are growing too fast!

[xcamel]

You dear, are completely daft.

[DownInFlames]

Obama will focus on eliminating humans on this earth starting with the USA. This will be the focal point in the start of a revolution. He will start with those who are unable to fend for themselves and work from there. The starting point will be the nursing homes and Social Security roles.

If you are over 80 or in a nursing home, you will be the first to go. As was in Star Trek, please report to a disintegration machine. It is your duty. The baby boomers had better watch out.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Carbon Dioxide is essential for plant life. Alert the Botanical Liberation front!

[xcamel]

Vegans hurt most...

[armydoc]

Carbon is essential for life, but spewing carbon out in a nice sooty cloud is not free from regulation.

You call for rational argument and then post a strawman?? CO2 is not sooty; it is a colorless gas. Now, if you're talking about particulates made of carbon, that's a different story. I don't think you'll find many around here that object to limits on particulate emissions from coal plants. However, sooty emissions are a thing of the past, given clean coal technology. No, the real issue is capping CO2 output in the name of dubious, emotional "science".

[SteamShovel]

Kill off anybody that doesn't agree with him under the guise of "Saving the planet"

I say the people saying that CO2 will kill the planet need to set the example by offing themselves first to convince us it is worth doing...

[visualops]

Bingo!

[macamadamia]

I don’t get why he’s doing this now? He should own the environmentalists by now, and it risks alienating other voters.

[wastedyears]

If this passes as legislation, it could be the most destructive bill to be passed in United States history.

[xcamel]

Because it was reported in a place that “is banned from access by freerepublic” -

[xcamel]

Read the article - not 'legislation'....

Executive Order!!

[razbinn]

Then stop making it d*** head!!!!

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Right Wing Assault]

Good!! Then I hope he stops exhaling!!!

He should get in trouble for exhaling dangerous pollutants. It would be fun to try a citizens arrest. I bet the Secret Service guys wouldn't think it was too funny, though. Then again, maybe they would. It would relieve them from having to baby sit "the big o."

[SteamShovel]

However, sooty emissions are a thing of the past, given clean coal technology.

Actually, conventional coal plants don't emit soot, and they don't emit flyash (unless there is a malfunction). Good combustion prevents soot, a precipitator or baghouse captures flyash, combustion control reduces NOx, a scrubber can remove sulphur, mercury, and nitrogen compounds. Conventional coal plants are really cleaner than the anti-coal people want to admit.

The term "clean coal" is typically used to mean newer design boilers where pollutants like sulphur are captured before they even enter the flue gas stream. There may still be flyash in a "clean coal" process like a CFB boiler. These type of boilers still require a baghouse or precipitator.

What the general public really means when they talk about "dirty coal" is the conventional plants of old, which burned coal without any controls at all. These do not exist anymore with maybe one or two exceptions. These days they have added CO2 as a pollutant from "dirty coal" to maintain the villainization as the emissions of coal plants continue to get cleaner. This is just BS.

[Question Liberal Authority]

He said that while exhaling carbon dioxide.

[macamadamia]

Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. This declaration by Obama only appeals to hardcore environmentalists and is, at least arguably, risky in its appeal to other voters. Isn’t this sort of political move done early in a campaign when a candidate tries to rally his base?

[Maceman]

Something being natural and essential does not preclude if from being a pollutant...other objections are demanded, if we are to fight this on a factual, not emotional, level.

The point is that once the government can declare CO2 to be a pollutant, and has the power to regulate it, there is virtually no aspect of human activity over which it can be denied from exercising authority and control.