tagged w/ EPA
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President Obama is halting regulations and overruling the EPA on smog. Is it because of pressure from Republicans and big business? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.President Obama is halting regulations and overruling the EPA on smog. Is it because... more
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I love you. I voted for you. I worked for you. I believe in you.
The reason I supported you over Hillary Clinton in the primary is that Hillary was unsuccessful in getting health care for all Americans, and then she quit the fight for the next seven years. She dropped it. I want someone who will fight for me. And even when they lose, they will get up and fight again. I believed you would do that.I love you. I voted for you. I worked for you. I believe in you.
The reason I... more
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President Obama pulled the plug Friday on a long-delayed environmental regulation that would have further limited industrial smog emissions, leaving in place an ozone standard that EPA administrator Lisa Jackson recently described as "legally indefensible."Obama's decision comes the same day new employment figures show the economy created zero net jobs in August.
What was the regulation, and what does it mean now that it's been scotched? In short, it means Bush-era smog standards, declared inadequate by government science advisers, will likely remain in effect until mid-decade if not longer.
EPA warns that breathing ground-level ozone (smog) "can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and congestion. It can worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Ground-level ozone also can reduce lung function and inflame the linings of the lungs. Repeated exposure may permanently scar lung tissue."
http://tinyurl.com/4yyqu9cPresident Obama pulled the plug Friday on a long-delayed environmental regulation that... more
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LOrion
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added this
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9 months ago
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-halts-controversial-EPA-apf-1745827859.html
"President Barack Obama on Friday sacked a controversial proposed regulation tightening health-based standards for smog, bowing to the demands of congressional Republicans and some business leaders....
"...In his statement, the president said that withdrawing the regulation did not reflect a weakening of his commitment to protecting public health and the environment.
'I will continue to stand with the hardworking men and women at the EPA as they strive every day to hold polluters accountable and protect our families from harmful pollution,' he said."
Just as long as it does not involve saying "No" to the corporate fascists. Way to go, President Putz!http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-halts-controversial-EPA-apf-1745827859.html... more
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Koch Industries is lobbying to prevent tougher counter-terrorism standards for its facilities that use hazardous toxic chemicals. A terrorist attack or accident at Koch’s oil, chemical, paper and fertilizer plants, an iWatch News investigation revealed, could put tens of thousands of people and their homes, schools, hospitals, day care centers, factories and offices at risk.
Koch maintains that existing federal and state regulations are adequate to protect nearby residents.
Here is a list of the 10 Koch facilities, and the toxic chemicals they use, that put the most Americans in potential danger in the event of an accident or attack:
More at the linkKoch Industries is lobbying to prevent tougher counter-terrorism standards for its... more
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WASHINGTON -- Few candidates in the Republican presidential primary field have decried the federal government with as much gusto as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). The three-term congresswoman has belittled the stimulus package, deemed the Obama administration both corrupt and "gangster," and lamented the "orgy" of spending she sees happening in Washington.
The contempt has served her well, helping her craft the type of fiscally conservative, anti-government message that has catapulted her into frontrunner status for the Iowa Caucus and, more immediately, Saturday's crucial Ames Straw Poll.
But it's simply not supported by the Minnesota Republican's actual record.
A Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Huffington Post with three separate federal agencies reveals that on at least 16 separate occasions, Bachmann petitioned the federal government for direct financial help or aid. A large chunk of those requests were for funds set aside through President Obama's stimulus program, which Bachmann once labeled "fantasy economics." Bachmann made two more of those requests to the Environmental Protection Agency, an institution that she has suggested she would eliminate if she were in the White House.
Taken as a whole, the letters underscore what Bachmann's critics describe as a glaring distance between her campaign oratory and her actual conduct as a lawmaker. Combined with previous revelations that Bachmann personally relied on a federally subsidized home loan while her husband's business benefited from Medicaid payments, it appears that one of the Tea Party's most cherished members has demonstrated that the government does, in fact, play a constructive role -- at least in her life and district.
"It had been a longstanding tradition in Congress to be fiscally conservative in every other district other than your own," said John Feehery, president of QGA Communications and a top adviser to former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert. "Bachmann apparently is being a traditionalist."
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/michele-bachmann-stimulus_n_922851.html
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This woman is the poster child for hypocrisy!WASHINGTON -- Few candidates in the Republican presidential primary field have decried... more
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Imzadi
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added this
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10 months ago
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By Stephen Lacey on Aug 8, 2011 at 11:37 am
If Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann can’t abolish the Environmental Protection Agency like she promised in June, she may just try to lock employees out of the building.
Speaking at campaign rally in Iowa last week, Bachmann made it clear that she’ll do anything it takes to stamp out environmental protection efforts – even if that means padlocking the front door and switching off the breakers, according to a report from the Des Moines Register:
“I pledge to you I’m not a talker. I’m a doer,” she said…
“And I guarantee you the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) will have doors locked and lights turned off and they will only be about conservation,” she said earlier today at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids. “It will be a new day and a new sheriff in Washington, D.C.”
Republicans have made anti-EPA statements a major part of their campaigns, with Bachmann making some of the most inflammatory remarks. In June, she famously called for “the mother of all repeal bills” focused on the EPA, which she re-named “the job killing organization of America.”
Republican House leaders are also ratcheting up pressure on EPA regulations. Last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton called on President Obama to stop new EPA regulations on mercury and air toxics, calling them a “regulatory train wreck.”
The EPA is a convenient bogey man for Republican leaders when it comes to their messaging on jobs. But what they don’t mention is that new regulations will be phased in over a 3-year period of time, giving most power companies enough time to meet standards. This has nothing to do with today’s economic issues. And over the next five years, the number of jobs created through retrofitting power plants with pollution controls could be in the tens of thousands, with virtually no impact on nation-wide rates, according to EIA projections.
Over the 40-year history of the EPA, there’s simply no evidence of the kind of mass murdering of jobs that politicians claim. In fact, since the agency was created in the early 1970’s, GDP has grown by 200% and common pollutants have dropped by 63%. But the facts don’t seem to matter when it comes to environmental issues this campaign season.
At least Bachmann’s plan to shut off all the lights at the EPA will conserve energy.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/08/290508/michele-bachmann-pledges-to-have-the-epa%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cdoors-locked-and-lights-turned-off%e2%80%9d/By Stephen Lacey on Aug 8, 2011 at 11:37 am
If Republican presidential candidate... more
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– Let’s put aside the safety issues exposed by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi. I would like to walk you through two of the least talked about issues with nuclear, the mining of materials, and the disposal of spent fuel. Hopefully, by the end of this treatise, you will become more aware that nuclear is not only NOT a clean energy, but may be one of the most toxic of all.– Let’s put aside the safety issues exposed by Three Mile Island,... more
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I recently starting getting one GOOD article a day and as much as I enjoy the content they report on and style of the writers, the news of yet another oil spill, this time in Montana on the pristine Yellowstone River (the longest freeflowing in the lower 48), is super disheartening and makes me wonder.
Did you know there's about 20,000 oil spills a year in the United States and that roughly 300 never make it to the public eye because they are so severe that the Environmental Protection Agency doesn't allow press to cover them and private contractors are hired to clean them up... I sure didn't.
This spill dumped over 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the river as it was being pumped from Canada to the US.
They even found a bald eagle- our brave mascot- drenched in sludge.
It makes me wonder why we live in a time when power and greed are preferred over health and the well-being of a planet and its people. It makes me wonder what life is going to be like for my children on planet Earth. It makes me wonder what anthropologists will think when they discover that we were one of the most wasteful and destructive of all civilizations thus far. It makes me wonder if this fight for a more conscious lifestyle and greater social awareness will ever end.
It makes me wonder how much more I can tolerate before I lose steam or control. I recently starting getting one GOOD article a day and as much as I enjoy the... more
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It's time to turn up the pressure on your legislators, the EPA, and the President over the unregulated permitting of the natural gas industry poisoning our water supplies. The "CONSERVATIVE" approach would be to protect our water supplies; ( in a world of heat waves and disappearing fresh water ), at all cost and as a priority over marginal profits. The gas can be extracted without poisoning our water and other environments. The conflict is over how much damage and death the natural gas industry should be permitted to wreak upon our water systems and the public relative to the amount of profit they can remove from our ground at any one time and place.
The evidence of fracturing's poisoning of even individual wells, as well as vast underground water systems in quite old now: ( "1987, EPA documented a case of fracturing fluids contaminating well water in West Virginia. The New York Times has much more here. Lee Fuller, president of the oil-and-gas industry group Energy in Depth, slammed the EWG report and the Times account. )
But Haliburton and their cronies are attempting to undermine any poison controlling regulation that would lessen their profits from killing us. They seem to have paid off all the right people too, because the EPA hasn't even enforced the inadequate regulation already on the books. It's come the our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren, or Haliburton's and Natural Gas Industry's profit margins.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=rif8facab&v=001BVj8qibBdX2EsEYzfmZLAp9DcLS3_-94jij023z2JTJ64n5dLKGsdjNTuvHNUP6p3XbBLCH2jVL6xIYUW1rZiX_ynmvMqNUzaausYGDRNwEblSx8u9BFod5q1wR8veuGIt's time to turn up the pressure on your legislators, the EPA, and the President... more
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Let’s put aside the safety issues exposed by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi. I would like to walk you through two of the least talked about issues with nuclear, the mining of materials, and the disposal of spent fuel. Hopefully, by the end of this treatise, you will become more aware that nuclear is not only NOT a clean energy, but may be one of the most toxic of all.Let’s put aside the safety issues exposed by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and... more
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Prohibited from regulating hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act, yesterday the EPA took to the air, proposing federal regulations to reduce smog-forming pollutants released by the fast-spreading approach to gas drilling.Prohibited from regulating hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act,... more
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With the nation’s attention diverted by the drama over the debt ceiling, Republicans in the House of Representatives are loading up an appropriations bill with 39 ways — and counting — to significantly curtail environmental regulation.
One would prevent the Bureau of Land Management from designating new wilderness areas for preservation. Another would severely restrict the Department of Interior’s ability to police mountaintop-removal mining. And then there is the call to allow new uranium prospecting near Grand Canyon National Park.
There is little chance that all the 39 proposals identified by Democrats will be approved by the Senate, which they control, or that a substantial number could elude a presidential veto. In fact, one measure — to forbid the Fish and Wildlife Service to list any new plants or animals as endangered — was so extreme that 37 Republicans broke ranks Wednesday and voted to strip it from the bill.
Although inserting policy changes into appropriations bills is a common strategy when government is divided as it is now, no one can remember such an aggressive use of the tactic against natural resources. Environmental groups and their Democratic allies in Congress worry that more than a few of these so-called riders could stick when both sides negotiate and leverage budget concessions in the fall.
“You have a fatal political momentum,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “They are going to load up this bill in an unprecedented fashion.”
Republicans frame their proposals — which are being debated and voted on this week on the House floor — as the best way to counter overreaching regulatory agencies.
The unusual breadth of the attack, explained Representative Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, is a measure of his party’s intense frustration over cumbersome environmental rules.
“Many of us think that the overregulation from E.P.A. is at the heart of our stalled economy,” Mr. Simpson said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “I hear it from Democratic members as well.”
But Democrats argue that the policy prescriptions are proof that Republicans are determined to undo clean air and water protections established 40 years ago.
Many of these new restrictions, they point out, were proposed in the budget debate earlier this year and failed. They are back, the Democrats say, because Republicans are doing the bidding of industry and oil companies.
“The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants, oil refineries and factories,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, excoriating the proposal on the floor.
Environmental regulations and the E.P.A. have been the bane of Tea Party Republicans almost from the start. Although particularly outraged by efforts to monitor carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas linked to the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere, freshmen Republicans have tried to rein in the E.P.A. across the board — including proposals to take away its ability to decide if coal ash can be designated as a toxic material and to prevent it from clarifying rules enforcing the Clean Water Act.
The appropriations bill in question covers the Department of Interior, the Forest Service and the E.P.A., and it was voted out of committee and onto the House floor strictly along party lines — with the Republicans prevailing 28 to 18. The bill cuts annual combined funding for agencies by 7 percent — and by nearly 18 percent for the E.P.A. alone — but it is controversial mostly because of the onslaught of policy changes.
Representative Norm Dicks, Democrat of Washington and ranking minority member on the appropriations committee, said Republicans were adding provisions unchecked to the law and getting away with very little scrutiny. He expected even more regulatory rollbacks to be added to the bill this week. The bill is under open debate on the House floor, and policy changes requested by members but not included by the appropriations committee can now be added one by one to the bill, in addition to the 39 riders that came out of the committee.
“It is already like a wish list for polluters,” Mr. Dicks said, “and it is going to get worse on the floor.”
Conservatives have been adding amendments at a furious pace. Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group, counted more than 70 anti-environmental amendments filed as of Wednesday morning and was monitoring for more.
Dave Conover, a senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington analysis and advocacy group, and a former Republican staff member with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the large number of provisions was less about policy and more a way for the conservatives in the House to signal the depths of their discontent with a broken political process.
“It is clear that the Senate is not going to pass all these appropriations,” said Mr. Conover, adding, “And the message is that in a down economy excessive environmental regulations are a bad move.”
But Mr. Goldston of the Natural Resources Defense Council said that although most of the policy attachments would never become law, the Republican appropriations flurry was still unnerving — and could pose more reason for concern in coming months. ”We are then going to be in a situation again where the Senate and president face the question of whether they are willing to shut down the government or appease a motley group in the House over a spending bill,” he said. “No one knows how that plays out.”With the nation’s attention diverted by the drama over the debt ceiling,... more
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"When the wind blows, a cloud of coal ash rises over the nearby homes"
"it’s subject to less regulation than the garbage you take to the curb every week"
“I can taste the salts of it coming into my mouth"
"America's dirtiest energy source"
"David-and-Goliath struggle against ... power plant's"
"an industry's desire to keep a dirty secret"
"15 billion tons of toxic sludge per year"
"it’s subject to less regulation than the garbage you take to the curb every week"
Once again, we must ask; Where is the accountability factor within our government? Where is the protection, oversight, and stewardship which we pay princely for every year? OH! That's right! Your legislators are taking hush money to suppress any attention to the systematic poisoning of all of us. But, who is most directly responsible to force the EPA to to protect the public from such toxic poisoning???
http://earthjustice.org/blog/2011-july/an-ill-wind-blows-in-moapa"When the wind blows, a cloud of coal ash rises over the nearby homes"... more
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The House is committed to attaching so many riders to the Interior Department's and EPA's budget that it will cripple the EPA by gutting funding, and rolling back environmental restrictions on oil refinery and power plant air pollution, coal industry waterways pollution, Shell Oil pollution permits, and facilitating a fast track to Arctic Coastal drilling permits, among other things. The message: ( Die bitches, as long as we and our corporate masters can continue making beau coup bucks! ).
backhttp://mail.aol.com/33996-111/aol-6/en-us/Suite.aspxThe House is committed to attaching so many riders to the Interior Department's... more
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Is your senator one of those working to gut EPA's last year's revised regulations on emissions standards and pushing to poison you with more mercury? With industry money behind them, our Senators are saying "SCREW THE PUBLIC, LET THEM DIE!" EPA caved to industry funded legislator's request for a moratorium on the implementation of direly needed revised toxic emissions standards once, and now they're poised to do it again! EPA is signaling that it will condone and let the toxins fly while awaiting "PUBLIC COMMENT". WTF!
Shout out to EPA, all legislators and President Obama:
What is there to think about? Whether we should commit suicide because we don't have insurance to pay for our toxin caused cancer? Whether we should consume as many drugs and alcohol as possible so it lessens the pain from all the fatal diseases and illnesses resulting from the poisons you are encouraging to be put into our lungs and stomachs? Whether we should be buried or cremated? What's your point? What's to think about? What the F__K are YOU thinking about?
Please read the article and raise some hell before it feels and smells like hell all around us. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/172061-overnight-energy
"Lawmakers, industry target EPA air rules on two fronts"Is your senator one of those working to gut EPA's last year's revised... more
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Thank Sandy Berman for directing us to this link at The Nation, pointing out how the Kochs and the extreme right, through their alter persona "ALEC", have disempowered the EPA and legitimized their right to poison you and me without even having to pay a fine !
http://current.com/1kb7ukc
"Take environmental protections. The Kochs have a penchant for paying their way out of serious violations and coming out ahead. Helped by Koch Industries’ lobbying efforts, one of the first measures George W. Bush signed into law as governor of Texas was an ALEC model bill giving corporations immunity from penalties if they tell regulators about their own violation of environmental rules. Dozens of other ALEC bills would limit environmental regulations or litigation in ways that would benefit Koch."Thank Sandy Berman for directing us to this link at The Nation, pointing out how the... more
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BILLINGS, Mont (Reuters) – Federal regulators said on Sunday they want Exxon Mobil to retool its preliminary plan to clean up oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana from a ruptured pipe at the start of July.BILLINGS, Mont (Reuters) – Federal regulators said on Sunday they want Exxon... more
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ExxonMobil told federal officials and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer that they had sealed the pipeline leaking oil into the Yellowstone River within 30 minutes. But federal documents show that sealing the pipe took 56 minutes -- almost twice as long as the company originally said.
The company told the AP that the error came about because the Exxon representative who briefed officials was providing information without the benefit of notes. In other words, not really intended to be a factual statement.
About 150 people, worried about health risks from the spill, came to an EPA meeting on the spill last night. One man said the fumes from oil on his neighbor's property were so strong he could only breathe with all the windows open. Though possibly closing the windows would be a better way to keep out fumes? That’s the EPA’s recommendation, as Grist noted yesterday. But if you’re living next to an open oil slick, what’s the difference, really?
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-07-07-documents-show-exxon-downplayed-time-it-took-to-seal-yellowstoneExxonMobil told federal officials and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer that they had... more
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July 2, 2011
Ruptured Pipeline Spills Oil Into Yellowstone River
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
An ExxonMobil pipeline running under the Yellowstone River in south central Montana ruptured late Friday, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations.
The pipeline burst about 10 miles west of Billings, coating parts of the Yellowstone River that run past Laurel — a town of about 6,500 people downstream from the rupture — with shiny patches of oil. Precisely how much oil leaked into the river was still unclear. But throughout the day Saturday, cleanup crews in Laurel worked to lessen the impact of the spill, laying down absorbent sheets along the banks of the river to mop up some of the escaped oil, and measuring fumes to determine the health threat.
Fearing a possible explosion, officials in Laurel evacuated about 140 people on Saturday just after midnight, then allowed them to return at 4 a.m. after tests showed fumes from the leaked oil had dissipated, The Associated Press reported. While the cause of the rupture was not immediately known, Brent Peters, the fire chief for Laurel, told The A.P. that it may have been caused by high waters eroding parts of the river bed and exposing the pipeline to debris.
The pipeline is 12 inches wide and runs from Silver Tip, Mont., to Billings, an area with three refineries, ExxonMobil said. All three were shut down after the spill. ExxonMobil said it had summoned its North American Regional Response Team to help clean up the spill, and a fire spokesman in Laurel said more than 100 people, including officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, were expected to arrive at the scene by Sunday morning.
In a statement, the company said it “deeply regrets this release and is working hard with local emergency authorities to mitigate the impacts of this release on the surrounding communities and to the environment.”
“The pipeline has been shut down and the segment where the release occurred has been isolated,” the statement added. “All appropriate state and federal authorities have been alerted.”
The rupture occurred sometime around 11:30 p.m. Friday. Duane Winslow, a disaster and emergency services coordinator for Yellowstone County, told a local television station, KTVQ, that all oil companies with pipelines near the river were told to immediately shut them down, and that the damaged pipe was off within half an hour. He said drinking water in the surrounding area was being monitored and so far was determined safe. Officials in Billings initially shut down water intake but later reopened it, KTVQ reported.
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PHOTO:
Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette, via Associated Press
Oil swirled in a flooded gravel pit in Lockwood, Mont. after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured.
.July 2, 2011
Ruptured Pipeline Spills Oil Into Yellowstone River
By ANAHAD... more
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