Posted on 12/23/2010 3:00:54 PM PST by STARWISE
As Gabriel Nelson of Greenwire reports, the EPA has taken one step closer to stripping the state of Texas of the right to determine how it wants to control air pollution.
The EPA has given TX final warning that if they do not implement new requirements for the regulation of greenhouse gases (which several states have challenged in court), the EPA will take over the authority to grant operating permits to industry in Texas itself.
Texas Governor Perry is fighting the takeover, of course, but EPA has rarely been faced down in court.
The action, which is nearly unprecedented in the history of the Clean Air Act suggests that rather than backing down on EPA’s regulatory putsch, the Obama Administration plans to double down and run the country as a permitocracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.american.com ...
CO2 = plant food!
“Real trouble” will mean the end of our country.
Sans Christian revival, we are government slaves, or nuked by China/Russia when we finally revolt.
Exactly what is Perry doing to fight this?
Texas should ignore/defy the EPA on this.
If any government agency attempts to reprimand any individuals or businesses in Texas, the governor should have standing orders for the Texas Rangers or national guard to arrest the agents.
The federal government is striking at the heart of state sovereignty on this, and Texas SHOULD NOT back down.
The new Congress can and should defund most of the EPA.
Wake up? Yea right. As long as the unemployment continues, beer is cheap, football/basketball/NASCAR is on every few days, and the neighbors wife is accessible for a quick tumble all is well with the world. Hey this socialism aint so bad after all.
NOBODY is waking up cause they don’t want to. We can write WAKE UP a thousand times a day on a thousand different websites or call those fools in Washington a hundred times a day and it will do no good. To precipitate the status quo ante, direct action against the status quo will be necessary. You can quote me on that.
Sadly, the odds are that next year's budget for the EPA will in absolute dollars, be greater than this year's budget. Boehner may throw the Tea Party members a bone or two. Sweeping change can only happen with new blood at all levels of leadership.
The state AG has filed a lawsuit. That will take some time to play out, and in the meantime, Texas is the only state that hasn't submitted their plan, so EPA will regulate Texas emitters on behalf of Texas.
Its really just politics. Perry is planning on running for prez and he wants to be able to run against EPA while his VP candidate, Sarah Palin, runs the attack dog campaign against Obama.
I don’t know ..hopefully, he’ll be issuing
a statement soon and DOING something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
API and other stakeholders have been working with EPA to revise the previous versions of the NSPS as required by the Clean Air Act. “Our recommended changes for flares and process heaters would protect the environment while allowing refineries to operate in a safe and efficient manner.
Any New Source Performance Standard must be cost effective and achievable so refineries can continue to make the changes necessary to meet the nation’s energy needs.
“The Clean Air Act was never intended to be used to regulate stationary source greenhouse gas emissions. Elected members of Congress should chart U.S. climate change policy.
API hopes that EPA will reconsider using NSPS to set greenhouse gas emissions standards and is concerned that such standards will hurt businesses’ ability to create jobs and spur economic growth.”
API represents more than 450 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.5 percent of the U.S. economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.
http://www.api.org/Newsroom/epa-emissions-stds.cfm
Keep it up and Texas is one step closer to invoking it's negotiated right to return to soverign nation status...
Gov. Rick Perry vs. EPA
December 20, 2010 3:45 P.M. By Drew Thornley
###
Things are heating up down here in the Lone Star State, as the EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz takes a shot at Gov. Rick Perry:
In a recent interview, Armendariz spoke of his childhood growing up amid pollution and blamed flawed state permits for allowing chemicals to seep into the environment and cause health problems.
“We have a governor that doesn’t understand that being protective of public health and the environment is good economic policy,” Armendariz said. “We have a governor who doesn’t understand that the overwhelming body of scientific evidence shows that greenhouse gases are dangerous for the environment, for our air, for our water, for our oceans. And he chooses to conduct state policy based on conspiracy theories and right-wing blogs.”
Armendariz, who believes “very strongly” in the mission of EPA, said the federal agency works closely with state and local governments to clean up pollution using science-based actions. Environmental activists and former Asarco LLC workers are currently petitioning Armendariz and EPA to designate a former smelter as a Superfund site.
Tension, though, has escalated between the agency and Texas over states’ rights and the agency’s declaration that some of the state’s pollution permits do not meet the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said that the state’s air is “significantly” cleaner since Perry took office 10 years ago and that “the increasingly activist EPA is ignoring the progress Texas has made to clean its air over the last decade”
I just wonder what “scientific evidence” Mr. Armendariz is referring to. Given his assertion that all “right-wing blogs” are slanted, surely that source can’t be the IPCC, since he obviously abhors slanted sources.
http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/255710/gov-rick-perry-vs-epa-drew-thornley
Why? Texas is not the entity that ignores and sidesteps the constitution.
That would be dee-cee.
Let them and THEIR tax base hit the road.
.
Everyoe expect your electricity bill to at least triple over this.
What is soooo crazy is the Chevy Volt has been named one of top cars of year. Goes 50-75 miles on pure electicity and then a horse of a 1.4 liter engine takes over and runs the generator. It takes an overnight charging to recharge the battery’s. If one would like they can install a 240V outlet that will charge the car in a shorter time.
G.E. just bought 12,000 of these cars. I hope they sell 12MM. I’m in the coal business. Guess where all that electricity is coming from? 51% of all electricity in the U.S. in coal generated. India and China can’t get enough of it. Neither country are regulating output like this. China is building ONE coal fired plant a week with no scrubbing etc.
Look at the coal stocks. They are soaring. Double edge sword. They (EPA)have mandated changes in water quality and now respitorial dust standards from 2mg/mm too 1mg/mm. We have run models of the impact and it is staggering to say the least.
IF the Fed’s impose these standards on all mining companies in the U.S. one will find that underground coal mining production will be cut in half. Prices are going to go through the roof and Met coal is gold right now in the foriegn markets.
The strategy I believe for US operators is not domestic but focusing on the export market for steam and met coal. The stock piles our dwindling as we speak and with these rules all it will do is to make it worse.
Simple: Supply and Demand
Hell, the recent EPA water reg’s are so that the frick’n runoff from their own parking lot will not meet the standards.
We now have no legislative body but a bunch of czar’s that are running this country. The executive branch has know by-passed any debate.
I probably won’t get this totally correct and I’m sure someone can correct me.
I believe that Texas has for years operated under an overall total emission standard for a given area as opposed to a standard based upon an individual facility/project emission within that area. That allows some facilities to be built in an area which violate some EPA standards but the total area comes in under EPA standard. I think the EPA is insisting that each project meet the standard rather than use the area wide standard.
Time for a red state revolt is long past. Which governors and state legislatures have the balls to do something about this power grab? This is pure political retribution, just like the offshore drilling ban, against states that didn’t vote RAT is the last 2 elections.
0bama doesn’t believe in freedom. He believes in government.
And the majority of American voters will believe anything, because they believe in nothing.
Great, no better time to succeed. Washington is full of itself, which is apparent based on last month’s actions in Congress.
Let the EPA try and enforce sucha ludicrous action. They will scream bloody murder whenTexas stops sending it money and petroleum products. Texas can and willsurvive without the bastards in Washington.
Carbon dioxide and water are bad?
Direct link to EPA threat letter. The requirements take effect in ten days — January 2, 2011!!
http://www.eenews.net/assets/2010/12/22/document_gw_01.pdf
You’re exactly right! Even with our “shortfalls” in budget, we
aren’t suffering like other states. We’re just leaner and
meaner! :)
Perry’s trying his best to distance us from Washington...and
the farther we are away from that cesspool the better!
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