Category: United States Environmental Protection Agency

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On Earth Day, More “Christians” Attack Environmentalists

Let’s look at the meaning of the word Environmentalist. According to the dictionary, an environmentalist is any person who advocates or works to protect the air,water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from  pollution or its effects.

Now, let’s see what the Bible says about Environmentalists and the protecting of our environment. There are many other scripture verses that remind us that God not only created the Earth, but also calls on us to protect it.

Psalms 104: 25-30 – There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

This verse clearly asks us to be good stewards of the environment. It tells us that all living things, both large and small depend on us for protection, for with that protection, we “renew the face of the earth.”

Now, enter the far right winged “Christian” conservative. For some strange reason, these people believe any attempt to protect the environment from pollution is non-Christian.

See their video below.

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Democratic democrats Planned Parenthood Politics Republican right winged United States United States Environmental Protection Agency

Republicans Are Masters of The Game

It is an obvious game of chicken and well-played by the Republicans. The object of the game is to establish your position in a metaphoric staring contest, wait to see who blinks first, then take all you can and run!

Think about it. Every single policy that involves negotiations, Republicans take the most extreme right winged position available. They then go on the so-called “main-stream media” and repeat their extreme arguments over and over and over again, in essence brainwashing otherwise rational Americans into thinking these far-fetched positions are normal.

After a constant barrage of talking points from every congressional Republican who gets  in front of a microphone or camera, these extreme positions take on a life of their own, as everyday folks begin to consider the possibilities of enacting these policies. People take up positions, usually along party lines, and the pros and cons are measured.

Democrats too, hear these arguments, for they are repeated by every single congressional Republican verbatim. So when the time comes to negotiate, Democrats, who tend to start in the middle, move more and more to the right, a move seen by Republicans as progress in the negotiations, and the end result is a piece of legislation that is somewhere between center and far right.

Look at the most recent negotiations between Democrats and Republicans – the 2011 budget. Weeks before the deadline arrived, Republicans gathered all their talking points, memorized them and spewed them out on every cable and radio network. The most extreme positions were demanding a $100 billion budget cut, defunding Education, defunding Planned Parenthood and stopping abortions, with no regards to women’s health or how she conceived – whether it be through rape or incest –  and with no regards to the health or survivability of the fetus. They also got bombarded with news from across the nation that Republican governors were enacting some of the most extreme policies this country has seen in decades regarding union collective bargaining capabilities. All this was done in unison, as the full effort to modify America’s thinking had begun.

As the deadline to agree on a budget approached, Republicans dug in even further. They were relentless in getting their message out, everyone reciting the same scripts, some even protesting outside of Harry Reid’s office demanding that Planned Parenthood be abolished. Democrats were not immune to the Republican’s efforts, and instead of taking up what many considered to be  traditional liberal positions on the issues, found themselves being more centrist in order to avoid looking as left-winged extremists.

Starting from this centrist position was an automatic win for the Republicans, but they continued digging in until the eleventh hour – literally! Democrats gave a little more, and the total outcome was an agreement to continue funding the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, but considerable cuts to programs geared towards saving lives, like the EPA and local police enforcement, as well as some cuts to Education among others. Cuts totaling $38.5 billion.

Republicans are masters of the art of negotiation. Take the most extreme positions, and stay there until the other side flinches.

The same strategy will be seen in the next big fight – raising the debt ceiling. And the Paul Ryan Plan, which will ultimately transfer $4.2 trillion from the middle class to the wealthy, is the extreme right winged position they will be using to get more centrist-right cuts. And their position now is, if Ryan’s plan doesn’t go into effect, then the debt ceiling will not be raised. Turn on your cable news station, and you are almost guaranteed to see  Republicans preaching that “we don’t have a tax problem, we have a spending problem,” and “Ryan’s proposed budget is the only responsible plan to tackle America’s long-term debt,” or that they only “intend to vote for Ryan’s budget cuts.”

They are a well oiled machine. But this game is not solitaire, so  it requires an opponent. Democrats must stand up for the middle class, like they’ve done for decades.

Democrats know the game being played by the Republicans, and they must play accordingly. In the words of GI-Joe, a favorite American hero: “… knowing is half the battle!”

 

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EPA Politics Republican United States Environmental Protection Agency

Republican Attack On The Air Your Breathe

Okay… all those who are tired of breathing semi-decent air, raise your hands. Now if you prefer to be breathing air that is completely polluted, raise your hands. Funny, I’m not seeing any hands being raised, but if Republicans get their way, breathing in pollutants would be the norm.

On Tuesday, a bill drafted by Republicans in the House of Representatives which will strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 34-19, with all Republicans supporting the measure, and three Democrats in favor. The bill now moves to the general House floor for a final vote. ClimateBiz Reports;

The House bill, also known as H.R. 910, would repeal the agency’s finding that greenhouse gases are pollutants that endanger public health. The bill introduced last week would also repeal the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases and restrict the EPA from granting federal waivers for stricter fuel standards for vehicles made in 2017 or after, as it has previously done for California.

“This really is a shocking attack on states’ rights and on public health,” Stanley Young, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, told the San Francisco Chronicle in a story published Monday. Young estimated H.R. 910 estimated could roll back upcoming cuts in pollution and petroleum consumption by 25 percent nationwide.

Bill co-sponsor Fred Upton (R-Mich.) initially billed the legislation as a job-saver and antidote to rising gas prices, a statement debunked by PolitiFact. Republicans have promised a full House vote before the Easter recess. Though passage seems likely in the House, its fate in the Senate is uncertain.

Of course, this is all in an effort to keep businesses and Corporations unregulated. You see, Republicans believe that the less regulations on a Corporation, the more profit that corporation can puts into the pockets of CEO’s. It’s the EPA’s job  to regulate these Corporations, providing them with an “acceptable” amount of pollutants they’re allowed to emit into the atmosphere. Conflict of interests here.

So, continuing with the Republican’s mantra of businesses and Corporations first, who cares if a few thousands or even a few million people die in the process. Heck, who cares if the entire globe suffocates? Someone, somewhere will be making a bonus if the EPA can’t regulate!

Read the rest of ClimateBiz’s Report here

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Climate change Featured United States United States Environmental Protection Agency

Chairman of Energy Disagrees with Climate Change

How crazy is it that the House of Representatives Republican Chairman of Energy, Fred Upton thinks that climate change is not man-made. You know, all the pollutants we pump into the atmosphere day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, have nothing to do with why our climate gets warmer and warmer, right?

Brad Johnson gives this report.

At a public forum today, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new head of the House energy committee, denied that climate change is manmade. Upton, who received $20,000 from Koch Industries in his most recent campaign, had called for a reduction in greenhouse emissions as recently as June 2009.

Upton has now introduced legislation with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to overturn the scientific finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse pollution threatens public health. This morning, Upton was pressed by National Journal‘s Ron Brownstein as to why the Upton-Inhofe bill describes climate change as “possible.” After repeated attempts to avoid the question, Upton finally explained his wide-straddling stance: he accepts that the planet is warming, but not that the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity are a cause:

“I have said many times, and there was a report a couple of weeks ago that in fact you look at this last year, it was the warmest year in the last decade, I think was the numbers that came out. I don’t — I accept that. I do not say that it is man-made.”

Upton then repeated the falsehood that “even if cap-and-trade had been enacted, it would not have changed the temperature by a tenth of a degree anywhere in the world.”

In reality, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that U.S. cap-and-trade would avoid several degrees of catastrophic warming. And 2010 was not just the hottest year this decade, but the hottest year in recorded history. This is why the National Academies of Science found last year that “climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities” and that the United States should “act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Instead, tomorrow Upton will hold a hearing with several witnesses funded by Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries to praise the Upton-Inhofe pollution act.

– Brad Johnson

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Politics United States Environmental Protection Agency

Republicans Are Now Attacking The Air You Breathe

New legislation is being introduced in the Senate by John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming that will take away the regulatory powers of the Environmental Protection Agency, also called the EPA.

This has always been a goal of the Republican party, and now with the numbers they’ve gained in the House of Representatives and the Senate, they are determined to pursue their ill-advised goals.

So what will Mr. Barrasso’s  new legislation do?

  • It will overturn the EPA’s 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are harmful to public health and the environment.
  • It will stop any actions by the EPA to regulate or stop any greenhouse gas emission without approval from the Congress
  • It will stop any federal laws from discussing or referring to global warming. These laws includes the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The bill will also allow regulation on pollutants and other greenhouse gases to go forward if an immediate threat is posed to the general public, so if a company continues to expose the public to polluted air that may possibly pose a threat in the future, then according to this bill, no regulation will be allowed on the companies.

The bill will also allow a previously negotiated vehicle mileage and emission standard agreement to go forward, but it takes away the power to manage how the regulations are enforced from the EPA and shifts the responsibility to the Department of Transportation.

The global warming policy director for the National Wildlife Federation, Mr. Joe Mendelson, disagrees with the basis of Mr. Barrasso’s bill.  Mr. Mendelson, who was part of the legal team that won the Supreme Court case that led to the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public welfare and the environment, said;

“It would create a parade of polluter loopholes allowing for unlimited carbon pollution. Americans don’t want Congress undermining The EPA’s work on new clean vehicle standards and cleaning up dirty smokestacks.”

In a statement, Mr. Barrasso explains the reasoning for his bill;

“It’s time for the administration to face the facts: Americans rejected cap and trade because they know it means higher energy prices and lost jobs. Washington agencies are now trying a backdoor approach to regulate our climate by abusing existing laws.”

“I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Washington doesn’t impose Cap and Trade policies in any form.”

This bill is of no surprise. Republicans have a proven track record of protecting companies over the lives of real living (polluted air) breathing Americans. The EPA’s goal is to make sure that these companies maintain some standards in the amount of gas emission they’re allowed to emit into the atmosphere, but according to the Republican way of thinking, doing so will impose unnecessary regulations, cause the company to loose some of their profits, and worst of all ultimately result in a healthier environment for the nation.

According to their ideology, a healthy nation is of less importantance than the right of  a company to dump infinite amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere for the sake of profit for said company.

Profits over human lives!

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