Posted on 10/19/2010 7:50:08 PM PDT by Hojczyk
HONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.
The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese leaders are willing to use their growing economic muscle.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Uh...What?
Sure I see that - you have weird needs.
And forget about getting the stuff from Russia. They cut us off when Putin came to power.
Sorry, NVDave, my last comment was directed to the other guy.
“It was a Republican President that backed the EPA (Nixon). As with all things, there are good and bad sides to everything.”
I agree completely. The low life expectancy in ex-USSR countries isn’t entirely from drinking, it’s from completely unchecked industrial pollution and the complete lack of safety standards. I’d hate to see what the US would look like in the 21’st century with no EPA in the 20th century. The infamous “flaming river” wasn’t that long ago. However, the EPA needs to get back to their ORIGINAL MISSION, and needs to be funded at that level.
Maybe they are regulating everything in sight these days out of boredom, because there aren’t any more manufacturing facilities to regulate!
Republican Congress stopped Amnesty.
Bush is one man .Bush doesn’t represent all Republicans.
Yes Bush was lax on the border and was for Amnesty but he doesn’t represent me nor all Republicans.
WASHINGTON (July 13, 2010) – In the latest step in its review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the foundation for unprecedented regulation of dust. According to EPA’s Second Draft Policy Assessment for Particulate Matter (PM), issued late last week, EPA may consider regulating coarse PM at levels as low as 65-85 µg/m3, twice as stringent as the current standard.“It would be virtually impossible for many critical U.S. industries to comply with this standard, even with use of best-management practices to control dust,” said Tamara Thies, NCBA chief environmental counsel. “All of us certainly want healthy air for our communities, but this is nothing more than the everyday dust kicked up by a car driving down a dirt road, and it has long been found to be of no health concern at ambient levels.”
Because of the high dust levels found in arid climates, many critical western industries have a difficult time meeting the current standard of 150 µg/m3. In some of these areas, “no-till” days have already been proposed for agriculture, severely hindering farmers’ ability to maintain productive operations.
“Farmers could be fined for everyday activities like driving a tractor down a dirt road or tilling a field,” said Thies. “It would effectively bring economic growth and development to a halt in many areas of the country.”
If EPA regulates dust at the level of 65-85 µg/m3, areas across the country would be classified as “nonattainment,” forcing states to impose extreme dust-control requirements on businesses across the board.
“The current PM standard was set conservatively low based on historically flawed health studies,” Thies continued. “EPA itself acknowledges the current standard was based on a desire to be cautious, and not on clear evidence that this very stringent level was necessary to protect against adverse public health effects. This is especially true for the type of rural dust predominantly found in agricultural and other resource-based operations.”
The policy assessment is the latest step in EPA’s ongoing review of the PM NAAQS, as required every five years under the Clean Air Act. The document will serve as the basis of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee’s (CASAC) consideration about whether to revise the current PM standard. CASAC is scheduled to discuss the document on July 26.
Check for gas leaks...
They’ll open them only after they’ve sold the rights to China.
Its what they’re doing with our oil shale.
Who ya kidding? It was 70+ million Americans that got off their asses and threatened those corrupt AHs with their jobs if they didn't stop it.
You're not fooling anyone.
The Cal EPA and California Air Resources Board are a prime example.
They answer to no one and have tons of money to go to the courts to enforce their will.
Oh yeah, all you in Pennsylvania have gas stations that sell gas with MTBE. I think it was a a Rutter's station. It is a poison that even California finally figured out shouldn't be added to gasoline. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) were the ones who originally said it was O.K. to use.
Which is one reason why many mines go on "stand by" with a skeleton crew to run pumps, take samples, etc. It is far less expensive to keep a half dozen people on the payroll for decades than to go through the reclamation process - especially if there is any potential for future operations.
Aren't these the same people that voted for obama? You give them FAR too much credit.
The California air resources board was created to make former governor Pat Brown and his son Jerry ultra rich.
What happened was when Pat Brown left office, he set up a shell company that got a percentage of the sale of Indonesian dictator Sukarno’s oil business (which was previously barred from US markets because, well, it was coming from a totalitarian dictatorship and free people shouldn’t support them). He made sure that only Indonesian oil could be sold in California by grade, but Alaska squeaked in under the rules). He had his son Jerry create the Air resources board to restrict oil in California to the light type of oil from Indonesia. Texas oil is too heavy under the ARB rules. Only Indonesian oil qualified.
He built his family a gravy train. If you dig, you’ll see that this corruption, using leftist fanatics as useful idiots, is rife in our government.
What changed is Most Favorite Nation trading status for China, thanks to the “Free Traders” in the GOP and rat party.
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