Jim Jeffords: Unhealthy Air (more Bush bashing)

The New York Times ^ | 06/30/2002 | Jim Jeffords

[Pokey78]

WASHINGTON
It is already too late for the United States to lead the world in the fight against global warming. President Bush saw to that last year, when he abandoned his promise to make power plants reduce the amount of carbon dioxide they send into the air.

But if the president won't lead the world, then the business community, the American people and their elected representatives in Congress must lead the president.

This month President Bush gave up all pretense of moving forward in the effort to clean up the oldest and dirtiest power plants. First he denigrated the climate action report released by his own administration. That report follows the National Academy of Sciences and the vast majority of scientists by stating that global warming is real and poses a significant threat. Then his administration announced possibly the biggest rollback of the Clean Air Act in history, proposing wholesale weakening of the "new source review" provision that requires old power plants to install modern pollution controls when they are renovated.

Pollution from power plants causes a variety of problems. Three in particular are health-threatening: mercury contamination linked to birth defects, ozone smog that triggers asthma attacks and fine particulate soot that can actually lead to death. In addition, these plants emit the chemicals that cause acid rain and haze in our parks, as well as large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which I am chairman, voted to set strong limits on the three major health-threatening types of power-plant pollution and to put a cap, for the first time in American history, on the release of carbon dioxide from power plants.

The administration's climate action report projects that American emissions of carbon dioxide will rise by 43 percent by 2020. Yet its climate policy does little or nothing to control or reduce this increase.

This is a problem with a solution. The technology to clean up these plants already exists; some of it has been around for decades. What has been missing is the political will either to tell the owners to install this technology or to create a market to encourage that investment.

America is on the verge of a boom in power-plant construction, and that gives us a rare opportunity. Including carbon dioxide reductions in a comprehensive cleanup plan now is the most efficient and least costly way to address the threat of global warming. The power industry realizes that the question on carbon dioxide is not whether it will be regulated, but when.

Dealing with global warming is too important to leave solely to Washington. Several states, including New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, are acting on their own to limit power-plant emissions. But Washington has a crucial role. The scientific consensus has never been stronger. A broad and growing coalition of public health and environmental organizations and several utility companies agree that we must act now. I hope that at some point President Bush will follow this lead.

Jim Jeffords, independent of Vermont, is the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

[small voice in the wilderness]

the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which I am chairman

Enjoy while you can. November cannot come soon enough.

[Morgan's Raider]

The most unhealthy air in the country is that emitted by Jeffords' marxist mouth.

[Torie]

It is curious that Jeffords omitted the price tag. Maybe it is zero. I always loved free lunches.

[spqrzilla9]

I guess Jeffords the Buffoon has already forgotten that he voted against the Kyoto treaty himself.

[JoeSixPack1]

So it's total fed control or nothin' !!

Jeffords is a first class maroon.

[looney tune]

Jeffords. What a schmoe.

[Trueblackman]

The funny thing is that all The Democrats and Euro-Trash that whine about the Environment are some of the biggest offenders. I have traveled in Europe and I will tell you this you don't want swim off Naples because of the untreated human waste or get rained on in Germany near the black forest because of the acid rain, but this trash wants us to get together and support the corrupt Kyoto Agreement? I think not!!!

[concerned about politics]

Jeffords has two faces. We see this one today, maybe there will be another tomarrow.
He lied when he ran as a Rubublican just to win an election.
Once a liar is caught, they have no credibility. They'll lie again and again.
Best to just sit back and shut up, Jeffords. Hopefully, your days are numbered in Washington.

[Sgt_Schultze]

We could elininate tons of "greenhouse gasses" in the form of CO2 if the a$$es in the senate would simply take this opportunity to reduce overpopulation by their own numbers. Jeffords should volunteer to be first as he is the penultimate a$$.

[Sgt_Schultze]

We could elininate tons of "greenhouse gasses" in the form of CO2 if the a$$es in the senate would simply take this opportunity to reduce overpopulation by their own numbers. Jeffords should volunteer to be first as he is the penultimate a$$.

[GulliverSwift]

Jeffords has two faces. We see this one today, maybe there will be another tomarrow. He lied when he ran as a Rubublican just to win an election. Once a liar is caught, they have no credibility. They'll lie again and again. Best to just sit back and shut up, Jeffords. Hopefully, your days are numbered in Washington.

I wonder if old Jimbo would try to switch back to the pubbies if the dems lost control of the Senate this fall. Or not. Maybe he'd go all the way and call himself a Dem.

[eeriegeno]

If anyone takes this idiot seriously, they have problems bigger than his!!!!!!!!

[beckett]

Is there a more reprehensible person in government than this slug? Nope, not even Hillary. Only little Billy's return could wrest that honor from Jeffords.

[free from tyranny]

Soon more businesses will just ignore these ridiculous attempts to throttle our productivity. Count mine among among them. Go to China, Jeffords!!

[Fracas]

Not even Mrs. Jeffords cares what he thinks.

[Brimack34]

I love when these socialists call themselves independent.
We got one here on MN. taking over for Jessie Ventura. He is a Rat. Tim Penny former U.S cogressman. He was pro-life but switched. Every ind. accept for Bob Smith is a Rat. So what is so Ind.

[dead]

The administration's climate action report projects that American emissions of carbon dioxide will rise by 43 percent by 2020.

The tabloid NY Times cannot, in any way, back up this ridiculous claim.

Of course, if a Republican made such a statement (one that ran counter to the liberal agenda), the Times would demand nine miles of confirmation, and after they confirmed it, they'd forget what the original statement ever was, and they'd run their nineteenth hundrend thousandanth millionenth front page story about how white racism is alive and well in this horrible nazish nation we call America.

[Nick Danger]

Oh well, it's Sunday, I suppose we can expect to hear a little preaching to the choir.

I wonder though, if it might not be possible to contruct a court case for the purpose of having this sort of Environmentalism ruled a "religion," as in "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Certainly if the words "under God" can be ruled unconstitutional when included in a Congressional Act, making laws turning other things upaside-down on the basis of a faith in 'these scientists' instead of 'those scientists' could also be so ruled.

A belief that humans are capable of affecting the climate of the Earth on any significant scale requires an act of faith. There are hints and clues that this might be true, but there is nothing resembling the sort of evidence one would need to prove, for example, the existence of God. If the one leap of faith violates the establishment clause, the other should as well.

I should not have to, with my tax dollars, support the religious beliefs of Senator Jeffords concerning global warming ... which is what I consider them to be, and which he in fact cannot prove otherwise.

He probably does not want my God on his money. I do not want his god picking my pocket. While I support his right to profess his religion in the pages of the New York Times, I think he should be prohibited from doing so in his capacity as a United States Senator.

[Taxman]

There are some of us here who remember what a schmoe (I don't think that is the correct spelling, but it is close enough for this discussion -- LOL!) was.

For those of you too young to remember, a schmoe is the only thing in the world more useless than a parakeet.

Jim Jeffords fits the definition to a "TEE!"