Fighting back against a massive bipartisan push to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, Administrator Lisa Jackson yesterday unloaded on critics who dare to claim that bureaucratically running the $14 trillion American economy would be dangerous.
Jackson miraculously claimed that EPA regulation would be good for the economy, noting that overturning its endangerment finding would result in "serious negative economic consequences." The statement was intended to rebut the common argument from Democrats and Republicans that greenhouse gas regulation would kill jobs.
The EPA administrator also said that without regulation, industry would face a range of inconsistent signals, which in turn would be bad for business.
Apparently, Ms. Jackson believes Americans live in an Orwellian world where imposing new taxes in a recession is a pro-growth measure... more »
STOP THE ENERGY TAX
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is embracing her opposition to cap and trade in her latest television ad. The move suggests she is happy to differentiate herself from primary challenger Bill Halter on cap and trade as she doubles down on her position. This is also despite new ads against Lincoln financed by groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.
(The ad itself is actually a rejection of most major Democratic initiatives, including not only cap and trade but also government-run health care and massive spending bills.)
With an eye on the Lincoln race, the Sierra Club is ramping up
efforts in elections this year, which is also part of a broader strategy by environmental groups to make a
last major push for climate legislation in Congress. That effort, of course, is
running into a stronger headwind each week.
The EPA announced another tailoring rule to its endangerment finding last week... more »
Another day, another delay.
The Department of Interior is on a bureaucratic quest to ignore the
public and stop any development of American energy. The latest example
is Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement this week that the next offshore drilling program will not begin until 2012.
The decision, made without voter approval and against the wishes of a
clear majority of Americans, upends the existing lease plan that was
set to begin this year, a plan that was crafted directly in response to
public outcry in 2008 over record high gas prices.
Ironically, it was that very energy crisis that forced then-candidate Barack Obama's hand in August 2008 when, as he campaigned tirelessly for the presidency, he declared support for offshore drilling. The left may have protested, but the decision was the right one.
What a difference a year and a half makes.
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There is a lot of buzz this week about a forthcoming climate bill authored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The early assessment is that since this compromise measure "drops" the infamous economy-wide cap and trade system, which was the central element of the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill and the Kerry-Boxer proposal in the Senate, then a Kerry-Lieberman-Graham bill has a chance to win over moderate Democrats and even some Republicans.
Senators who previously had major concerns with cap and trade are supposedly warming to this new proposal, saying that it shows "promise" for a path toward a comprehensive energy and climate bill.
But the new measure is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to disguise the truth: This is nothing more than a fancy attempt to propose another energy tax that will kill jobs, increase energy prices, and further cripple a frail economy.
The Kerry-Lieberman-Graham (KLG) proposal will include a different structure for capping carbon among different sectors of the economy... more »
Facing an onslaught of criticism and bipartisan outrage over its recent endangerment finding, the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday altered its proposed plan to regulate greenhouse gases with a token gesture of acknowledgment of its own incompetence.
In the new plan, the EPA raised the emissions threshold requirement for America's energy producers from 25,000 tons to at least 75,000 tons per year. The move came after state regulators warned the EPA that the 25,000-ton threshold (proposed last year) would cover more entities than the EPA thought, which in turn would have disastrous consequences for job growth and economic recovery.
Translation: The EPA is slightly loosening its pending stranglehold of the entire American economy because the agency was not informed enough to make a rational assessment of exactly how much its backdoor energy tax would cost.
And of course, this tweak of an inherently flawed policy "only" impacts the plan to regulate power plants and the largest energy producers in America. It does nothing to the coming regulation in 2016 of smaller businesses, which some have warned could include dry cleaners, restaurants, bakeries, and even churches... more »
Rather than adhering to the Beltway tradition of waiting for Friday to release bad news, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar eschewed convention today and dropped a bomb on American energy independence, economic recovery, and public opinion when he announced that the next offshore drilling program will not begin until 2012.
When Salazar took office last year there was an existing leasing plan set to begin in 2010, a plan that critics believed the Obama administration would alter but not scrap completely. After massive unrest in the summer of 2008 over $4-per-gallon gasoline, Congress finally lifted its 25-year ban on offshore drilling, clearing the way for a common-sense leasing plan.
Even President Obama as a candidate embraced offshore drilling during the presidential campaign.
Apparently the Obama administration actually believed that a quarter of century of bans on offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf was not enough of time to wait for more affordable American energy... more »
You might have missed it in all the excitement over last week's health care summit, but Speaker Pelosi made the outlandish claim
that the health care bill would create 400,000 jobs "almost
immediately." How, exactly? She never said. But it's another example
of the latest tactic used to pass any and all legislation: call it a
jobs bill.
The Washington Times cites a few more examples today:
It was a modest measure to designate several thousand beachfront acres of St. Croix as a National Historic Site, but in the hands of a skilled congressman such as Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, it became yet another jobs bill.
Likewise the Travel Promotion Act, which would create a nonprofit group to push U.S. tourism, has been billed as a job-producing machine by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.
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