Posted on 06/20/2011 4:42:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
As the Obama administration tries to makeover their reputation as out-of-touch, ultra-liberal, urban dilettantes and sophisticates, perhaps they should rethink letting whack-job enviros make energy policy for the nation.
Because even with rising energy prices and complaints amongst the business community that the administration's regulatory burdens verge on the ridiculous, Obama continues his relentless assault on the domestic supply of energy with an assist from the most radical fringe element of environmentalists.
“Aging coal-fired power plants across the West could be forced to install costly pollution control equipment,” reports the AP “under an agreement between federal regulators and environmentalists aimed at jump-starting a delayed clean air initiative.”
The agreement entered into by the Obama administration with the environmental whack-jobs WildEarth Guardians will cost utilities at least $1.5 billion and put at risk the operation of 18 coal-fired electric plants in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming by next year.
This is how energy policy in the mostly-clueless Obama administration is made, in case you were wondering why joblessness was so high in the U.S.
As the Washington Times writes: “Less than 24 hours earlier, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley heard heated complaints from business leaders about burdensome government regulations at a meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington. As Mr. Daley listened to tales of the administration’s interference in industry, he replied, ‘Sometimes, you can’t defend the indefensible.’”
Sure, but you can let environmental extremists write energy laws.
So who is WildEarth Guardians?
Oh, just your average, everyday anti-capitalist working with the Obama administration on the issue de jour.
Here’s what WildEarth’s founder, Sam Hitt, blogged last year under “Revolutionary Rant #8”:
“Here’s [h]ow a revolution could happen. First, a general disillusionment with the power structure, like the distrust of capitalism and corporations that is widespread in America today. Then a mismanaged crisis, such as the global financial meltdown that fundamentally delegitimizes the system….But to overcome the gravitational pull of the old capitalist paradigm, there must be a critical threshold of steadfast citizens willing to risk the new, not reform the old.”
It only gets better.
Turns out that WildEarth Guardians are mostly a bunch of lawyers and engineers with the job to pursue litigation in order to obstruct energy projects to protect rocks, trees, unicorns and rainbows, at the expense of humans.
You thought “death-panels” were scary? These guys have advanced degrees in the fine art of human-species loathing.
As WildEarth staff member Taylor Jones, who has an M. Sc. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison- yes, that Madison- says, “Beings are numberless; I vow to save them all."
Rhetoric like that certainly deserves the added benefit of determining energy policy for the rest of us. Maybe this is where Obama got the vow to put a million rubberband-powered cars on the road in four weeks.
Except of course, Taylor Jones won’t be saving the grandmother living on a fixed income in Wyoming who can’t afford the rate hike that utilities will have to impose on us because they can’t use the cheapest source of energy around, coal. The grandmother, who probably counts as a sentient being…well, she’s on her own.
Underpinning the WildEarth philosophy is the misanthropic belief that earth would be better off without humans.
“Now they're prepared to be the guardians of the earth - the WildEarth that is,” writes La Jicarita News, “the earth sin gente [without people]. That's the philosophy that underlies their mission: saving nature apart from man, who is the scourge of the planet.”
Thank goodness Obama has so many guardians to look after getting rid of the rest of us.
These people are scary, and are ruining the country with breathtaking speed.
“Aging coal-fired power plants across the West could be forced to install costly pollution control equipment,” reports the AP “under an agreement between federal regulators and environmentalists aimed at jump-starting a delayed clean air initiative.”
The solution has already been given by one power company, somewhere back east, and I know of three other planned shutdowns in my own area. The coal fired plants in question WILL BE SHUT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shut down people, not power plants
Well 0bama said that our electricity rates will rise
Environmentalism is incompatible with human existence. The only way enviros can accomplish their goal is if they rid the earth of all people. Why we continue to let their use our govt to accomplish their goal is beyond comprehension.
Why they continue to exist is beyond my comprehension. Eradication is the solution
...and he seems to have conveniently left out, that capacity will shrink.
It is not about the earth it is about the money they make filing lawsuits and fundraising with baby seals being clubbed by evil man. They are lawyers, no concern about the animals or plants just their wallets.
Obama keeps SOME of his promises.
Barack Obama: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
More news on our settlement to slash coal pollution in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming! http://fb.me/KcmXBRtC
17 hours ago
http://twitter.com/#!/wildearthguard
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
It’s really necessary that we all make efforts to conserve resources on this increasingly populated earth. What... http://fb.me/OVVYBjZL
13 Jun
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
Learn more about the little lizard that has been at the center of all the oil & gas controversy. http://fb.me/H5jvwrkK
10 Jun
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
No creature is too small. Here is to habitat protections for shrimps and snails. http://fb.me/13cXVv1CF
7 Jun
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
Dads around the country are saying, “Ditch the tie, and buy me a tree instead.” Be a good kid and buy pops a tree... http://fb.me/10Tt3tZ8B
3 Jun
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
WildEarth Guardians helps give kids a voice. Greenhouse gases are endangering our health, climate and the public... http://fb.me/OljJnyfk
3 Jun
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
Enviros, GOP Lawmakers Square Off Over Plan to Block Southwest Endangered Species Listings http://fb.me/MfF01laj
6 May
wildearthguard Wildearth Guardians
Carbon dioxide is no joke this April Fool’s Day. Tell Salazar fossil fuels are nothing to fool around with! http://fb.me/WrLRiZvS
1 Apr
05/16/2011
Announced last week, the agreement between the Obama administration and Denver-based WildEarth Guardians received strong praise from many conservation groups.
It would address a backlog of 251 imperiled species currently listed as “candidates” for protections that the government lacks the resources to provide. Those include widely recognized species such as the greater sage grouse and Canada lynx and dozens of lesser known plants and animals.
But the Center for Biological Diversity criticized the deal for leaving out some species that could be hurt by climate change, including the Pacific walrus and wolverine. The group also argues that the deal is not enforceable.
The center is not a direct party to the 12 cases covered by the settlement, but is a plaintiff in a related case. That gives it potential legal leverage to influence enactment of the deal.
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WildEarth Guardians is the group advocating for the dunes sage brush lizard to be on the endangered species list. From hcn.org -Over the past four years, frustrated conservation groups like WildEarth Guardians have filed more than a thousand petitions to force the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to consider listing specific species, and pursued dozens of lawsuits when the agency missed deadlines. This tide of litigation has overwhelmed agency staffers and swallowed a big chunk of the budget; finally the Service, in its 2012 budget request, asked Congress to cap the number of petitions it had to consider each year. Now, a historic settlement between the Interior Department and WildEarth Guardians U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan is expected to approve the plan later today. “For the first time in years, this work plan will give the wildlife professionals of the Fish and Wildlife Service the opportunity to put the needs of species first and extend that safety net to those truly in need of protection,” said Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes in a press release, “rather than having our workload driven by the courts.” Optimistic words, but the settlement applies only to WildEarth Guardians, and there’s still the Center for Biological Diversity to be reckoned with.
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In 2007, the Guardians formed a Climate and Energy program because the American West had become ground zero for new fossil fuel extraction and oil, and gas development on public lands significantly threatens wildlife and wild places.
In 2008, Forest Guardians merged with a carnivore protection non-profit, Sinapu, from Boulder, CO and became WildEarth Guardians. Though we have significantly expanded our scope over the years, our core mission to confront the threats facing the beauty and diversity of the American West has not changed. We’ve added an in-house legal team that works closely with our program directors to reform policy and uphold environmental laws. In addition, our program directors use public awareness campaigns and political pressure to protect wildlife, wild places, and wild rivers.
http://sharing.wwlp.com/sharekxan//photo/2010/01/11/texas-kangaroo-rat_20100111140712_320_240.JPG
Pollution threatens TX kangaroo rat
An environmental group is seeking federal protection for the Texas kangaroo rat and four other Great Plains species threatened by development and pollution.
Denver-based WildEarth Guardians is filing petitions and lawsuits this week to list them under the Endangered Species Act. The group on Monday planned to file a petition to protect the rat, which has lost habitat to agriculture and development.
Lauren McCain with WildEarth Guardians told The Associated Press that these species illustrate the dangers of shrinking open spaces and vanishing water supplies.
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