Posted on 12/28/2022 3:09:31 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
DENVER (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether Colorado’s regulation of air pollution from industrial facilities discriminates against Hispanic residents and other racial minorities, according to a letter released Wednesday.
Federal investigators said in the letter they will scrutinize the state’s oversight of Colorado’s biggest polluters including the Suncor oil refinery in North Denver where Molina lives, and whether the effect of that pollution on residents is discriminatory.
The EPA launched its investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It has been going on since March but went little noticed until Wednesday’s letter, which explains its scope. The Act allows the EPA to negotiate agreements with states to promote equity. The Biden administration has stepped up its enforcement of environmental discrimination.
The EPA may have an easier time convincing Colorado to change than it would, say, Texas, said Jeremy Nichols, head of climate and energy programs at WildEarth Guardians.
Nichols said Colorado is too deferential to industry. He wants to see the state deny permits much more often.
Ian Coghill, an attorney with Earthjustice that is challenging the Suncor permit, says the push and pull between the EPA and state hasn’t yielded major improvements. Revisions to Suncor’s permit, he said “didn’t change a lot.”
He is hopeful the civil rights investigation will force the state to make changes and detail the cumulative effect of pollution from industry on residents of North Denver.
“I’m definitely optimistic,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I guess this will be the next wave of attacks on fossil fuels...
Getting absolutely ridiculous. It’s like these people spend their life going around trying to find something that they can complain about or be offended. There is going to be some pollution with any human activity. It is a fact of life. You cannot eliminate all pollution on earth if there are humans. Period. It makes me wonder what these folks think about the ice age that supposedly killed of the dinosaurs? Dinosaur farts??
Thank goodness. I was wondering just how long that would go on without someone bringing the scofflaws to justice.
If you live near tracks, expect trains. -Sun Tzu (maybe)
😂😂😂😂😂😂, oh, otay. Fookin’ idjits!
Bump
.
In general, poor neighbors have sprung up around refineries as the land nearby was very inexpensive. Those refineries were there first, some built in the early 1900s when everything around them was empty.
As with everything the government does, the stated excuse has nothing whatsoever to do with the objective, which is to shut down industry and in particular the oil industry.
“whether Colorado’s regulation of air pollution from industrial facilities discriminates against Hispanic residents and other racial minorities”
And leftist idiots have every one of their fingers and toes crossed hoping that a leftist idiot judge will rule that favored minority groups have been “disproportionately” harmed by air pollution.
Colorado will be the launch pad. This BS will go nation wide and we are all going to get screwed by this.
World is going to end, women and minorities hit hardest.
I didn’t know pollution was racist. /S
I think that refinery has been there since 1931. Blame the people who chose to move next to it? No. Blame the state.
It would be cheaper and faster to build the Hispanic community their own new township than to move a refinery.
Reparations?
The EPA should be abolished.
I’m tired hearing all the bitching and moaning from racial minorities and multi-generation welfare klans.
When everything green is really Red.
15,000 unionized Democrat-voting jobs would be lost, LOL
100% beneficial to the nation.
Nix all the other unlawful fedetal department too ... make a degree in government about as marketable as one in basket weaving.
Probably the main reason that Colorado state actors may be trembling in their boots with respect to EPA investigation is because Constitution-impaired Colorado probably doesn't understand that the states have never expressly consittutionally given the feds the specific power to police environment.
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936
In other words, the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress is wrongly letting the non-elected bureaucrats running the constitutionally undefined EPA get away with unconstitutionally expanding the already unconstitutionally big federal government's powers with stolen state powers.
Also consider that the states have never expressly constitutionally given the feds the specific power to find remedies for racial discrimination outside the scope of voting rights issues, evidenced by the 15th Amendment.
"15th Amendment:Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Patriots need to give “street fighter” Trump a second term to finish draining the swamp. That hopefully includes working with state lawmakers to surrender state powers that feds have been stealing from states back to the states.
Let’s look back a few years:
NO ONE builds a refinery overnight.
WHEN was the refinery built?
When did the local population EXPAND to move close to such refinery???
I remember in Los Angeles:
L A INTERNATIONAL was built in wide open spaces. REALLY OPEN
LA GREW-—and grew.
People moved into areas around the airport—closer & closer-—and then bitched about the NOISE.
For many years, this scam was being played & people were getting payments from taxpayers by suing ‘for the noise’.
FINALLY-—the LA City Council found their balls & said-—NO MORE. IF you move anywhere near an airport or near a flight path of such airport-—you HAVE TO KNOW the airport is there. The flight path at LAX is east-west. Planes take off west—out over the ocean—heavy power makes noise-—CANNOT change that.
IT HASN’T BEEN HIDING.
They refused further payments.
People want the airport to be ‘Convenient’ for themselves-—but will bitch about the noise.
IF I remember correctly from going thru Denver 2 times since 1988-—there is alot of land to build on. IF developers keep building near refineries, etc. either THEY have to cease-—or PERMITS cannot be given out for such development & then a flurry of lawsuits against the refinery won’t happen.
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