Free Republic

Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposal to impose carbon dioxide limits on power plants. Committee leaders sent a letter to EPA director Gina McCarthy on Friday, asking her to withdraw the proposed regulations, arguing that the agency is trying to "impose standards beyond the scope of its legal authority." In September, the EPA released a proposal to set emissions caps for new coal-fired power plants that would likely require the industry to use carbon-capture technology, which involves burying the carbon underground. Critics argue the technology, which...

During a congressional hearing with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards (Maryland), claimed Congress has no authority to question the EPA's data and techniques. [video]

President Barack Obama's top energy and environmental officials said Wednesday there is a future for coal, despite a pending regulation aimed at limiting global warming pollution from new power plants that Republicans and the coal industry say will doom the fuel source. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, questioned at a House hearing, both said coal-fired power would continue. Coal makes up about 40 percent of U.S. electricity. "The rule will provide certainty for the future of new coal moving forward, and in terms of existing facilities, coal will continue to represent a significant source of energy...

BOULDER, Colo. | EPA chief Gina McCarthy said Wednesday that the Obama administration is finished waiting for Congress to act on climate change and plans to bypass the legislative branch in developing a federal response. Ms. McCarthy, who was confirmed last month as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, cited President Obama’s June 25 speech at Georgetown University, in which he unveiled his Climate Action Plan and vowed to make combatting climate change a priority of his second term. Mr. Obama gave “what I really think is a most remarkable speech by a president of the United States,” said Ms. McCarthy in...

f confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nominee Gina McCarthy will inherit an agency exceeding critical mass. This bureaucratic onslaught has decreased American freedom and the EPA’s ability to efficiently address real environmental challenges. Given that McCarthy has helped to build this epitome of regulatory excess, it is important that the confirmation hearing clarify what the proper role of the EPA and the proper role of the administrator should and should not be. 1. Do you agree with former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson that unilateral actions on greenhouse gas emissions will not significantly impact global emissions and...

Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s choice to replace Lisa Jackson at the Environmental Protection Agency, has been chastised for having lied to Congress, in claiming that EPA did not use “dangerous manmade climate change” to justify new 54.5 mpg standards for cars and light trucks. She’s also been implicated in the agency’s practice of using fake emails to hide questionable dealings and activities. These issues highlight attitudes toward ethics, law and public policy that prevail at EPA and too many other government agencies. However, that attention should not distract from other important matters. Ms. McCarthy may be the worst of the...

Barack Obama on Monday nominated Gina McCarthy to replace Lisa Jackson as Environmental Protection Agency administrator. McCarthy, who currently heads the EPA's air and radiation office, has vowed "not to sit around and wait for congressional action" when issuing environmental regulations. On May 1, 2010, in the keynote address for the Green Education Celebration at University of Massachusetts in Boston, McCarthy said she did not go to Washington to wait for congressional action and she said she did not intend to do so in the future.

Regulation: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency's office of air and radiation admits she doesn't know how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. How can someone so ignorant have such an important job? It's not like Gina McCarthy has no experience in environmental policy. Her EPA bio says she's been commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and "worked at both the state and local levels on critical environmental issues." McCarthy even "has extensive experience with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first market-based greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system," as well as a "master of science in...