Tech | September 24, 2011 | 15 comments

House passes TRAIN act to dismantle Clean Air Act

source: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2011/2011-09-23-02.html

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JanforGore
The House Republicans are calling it the TRAIN Act, but environmentalists are calling it a "train wreck."

Today the House passed the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act of 2011 (H.R. 2401), which would dismantle core elements of the Clean Air Act.

The measure would block health safeguards already issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and prevent imminent mercury standards from being adopted.

The law would impose a mandatory minimum delay of between 15 and 19 months and eliminate any statutory deadlines for EPA to reissue those standards in the future.

The Obama Administration has said the President is likely to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

Congressman John Sullivan of Oklahoma said today that he introduced the bill "to protect American jobs we are in danger of losing due to the Environmental Protection Agency's costly, burdensome regulatory agenda."

"The fact is EPA has no idea how these regulations are impacting global competitiveness, energy and fuel prices, jobs or reliability of the electricity supply - eight of the EPA regulations addressed in this bill will cost a minimum of $1 billion each on the U.S. economy," Sullivan said.

"I firmly believe the American people deserve an honest accounting of how much the Obama Administration's energy and environmental regulations are costing our economy and that is exactly what the TRAIN Act provides," said Sullivan.

Now the bill goes to the Democrat-led Senate.

Earlier this week, Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, held a press conference with public health experts and a family affected by asthma to stress the importance of defending the Clean Air Act from attacks, such as the TRAIN Act.

Senator Boxer said, "Today our landmark Clean Air Act, which has protected the air we breathe for decades is under fierce attack by House Republicans. We have faced this attack once already sicne the Republicans took over the House. We prevailed then, and we must prevail now."

If approved by the Senate, the measure would go to President Barack Obama for his signature and there faces a veto threat.

One of the world's largest fossil-fueled power plants is the Cumberland, operated by the U.S. government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (Photo courtesy TVA)
In a statement of the administration's policy, the Office of Management and Budget Wednesday said, "If the President is presented with H.R. 2401, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill."

Earlier this month, in the face of industry and Republican opposition, President Obama decided to withdraw consideration of new protections against smog pollution that were proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, his veto of the TRAIN bill is likely, the OMB said.

"The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 2401, which would block two landmark public health regulations under the Clean Air Act and require the preparation of costly, unnecessary, and redundant reports," the OMB stated. "While the Administration strongly supports careful analysis of the economic effects of regulation, the approach taken in H.R. 2401 would slow or undermine important public health protections."

"H.R. 2401 would undermine this progress by blocking EPA's ability to move forward with two long overdue Clean Air Act rules - the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule - to reduce harmful air pollution that threatens public health, especially the health of the most vulnerable populations, including children and seniors."

The EPA estimates that these two rules alone will yield hundreds of billions of dollars in net benefits each year. H.R. 2401 would block these rules and indefinitely delay these public health and economic benefits.

Sam Parry of the Environmental Defense Fund called the bill a "train wreck."

"This is an outrageous assault on our right to breathe air that won't kill us or make us sick. It's time to stop this morbid pro-polluter, anti-public health agenda in Congress," said Parry.

Charles Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, said, "The TRAIN Act is the single greatest roll-back of Clean Air Act protections in history.

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15 comments // House passes TRAIN act to dismantle Clean Air Act

  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  
    • Image

    • Proposed Renewable Energy Jobs for Maine, Virginia, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and the Gulf States
      Opinion: Alcohol is a carbon neutral, non-toxic fuel choice for the 21st century. The United States can solve it's energy crisis and help stabilize the climate by making alcohol fuel from marine algae. No more drilling, no more war, no more pollution!

      Excerpts from 'Alcohol Can Be A Gas' by David Blume
      Phone: (831) 471-9164 Fax: (831) 471-9166
      email: info@alcoholcanbeagas.com

      The Untapped Potential Pages 156-157 (Condensed, rearranged and re-phrased).
      “Looking at kelp for methane production, the American Gas Association, hardly a wild-eyed utopian group of tree huggers, estimated somewhere near 23 quads (23 quadrillion Btu) a year of methane from kelp just from the California Coast. If the kelp was first fermented to make alcohol and the remaining mash was then fermented a second time for methane, to be used primarily for alcohol plant energy, about a third of that energy would be recovered as alcohol. This might be almost 90 billion gallons of fuel from the California coast alone.”
      “The remaining two-thirds of the energy as methane would provide all the alcohol plant process energy plus a huge surplus of gas/electricity. That's roughly half of the transportation fuel the U.S. currently uses per year. Add to this the potential production from the Oregon and Washington Coasts, the nutrient-saturated dead zone of the Gulf of Mexico, and possibly the outflow from Chesapeake Bay. Looks like we've replaced all the transportation fuel for the United States just from marine algae, as well as the lion's share of natural gas and electricity as well. All without using a square foot of farmland.”
      “The potential impact of a crop such as algae can't be ignored... Kelp can grow inches or even more than a foot per day!...No fertilizer is necessary to produce it ...(when)...kelp is cultivated near river outflows containing sewage entering the ocean. Coastal kelp-to-alcohol plants would return the fermentation carbon dioxide to themselves, bubbling it through the kelp, thus increasing the growth. This would generate more oxygen and cool the water.”
      “There are 150 intermittent or permanent dead zones in the world today...Due to the warming of the water along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts, krill have disappeared. Animals from birds to whales depend on (krill) for food. “...Without the krill, you could be looking at a food web collapse” (Ellie Cohen, Executive Director of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California). Water temperatures along the Gulf of Alaska are the highest they've been in 50 years...Massive kelp farming might have to be implemented to locally absorb solar energy and cool the ocean surface so that plankton can survive and feed the food chain.”
      “Kelp farms would be oxygen-rich oases for sea life in dead zones...(They also) dramatically cool the surface of the water, (serving) as a buffer against hurricanes, causing them to cool and stumble down a couple of categories before hitting land. We could convert the oil platforms to plants that process seaweed for alcohol, and pipe it to shore. (Gulf of Mexico area).”
      “Kelp meal or kelp solution (by-product left after making alcohol from kelp) is a natural wide-spectrum fertilizer superior to the toxic, and in some cases radioactive chemicals...used in the nation's agriculture today... Kelp fertilizer is non-toxic and petroleum-free.”
      “So then all we'd have to do would be to nationalize the now-useless pipelines to send some of the alcohol and all of the digested liquid kelp to fertilize our nation's agricultural heartland. Of course, building such kelp farms would be a massive undertaking, but if building 41,000 miles of highways to carry our vehicles or mounting a $500 billion war FOR OIL in Iraq doesn't intimidate our Congress, then neither should a project like this- which neatly solves many problems in one stroke.” D. Blume

    • 8 months ago
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  

    • Earth to Susan Collins! We are about to burn up and then freeze. It's time to change your Republican tune. Listen to the WISE people of Maine and help. The businesses are going to be wiped off the planet very soon if you don't help decrease these CO2 emissions. We need complete change in policy and a complete change in SENATORS.

      Common Ground Fair Unity, Maine September 23-25, 2011

      Lou McNally, Ph.D. Summary from talk “Climate Change Implications for Maine Agriculture.

      37 degree N latitude to north pole and 37 degree S latitude to south pole has a solar insulation deficit. 37 degree N to 37 degree South has lots of solar insulation. Thus, as the planet heats up, it is the areas to the north and south of the 37 degree latitudes that are the most affected by increasing temperature, leading to arctic and antarctic melting. The areas to the north and south will eventually cool and lead to a mini ice age. The reference here was to natural cycles and the slowing of the Atlantic ocean conveyor belt that he stated would not shut off entirely. Stated he felt the cooling would occur above and below the 37 degree latitudes and that “Maine is seeing the line”. This was highly disputed by the audience (living mostly in Southern Maine) who stated everything in Maine was heating up with ice out earlier (1-2 weeks) and ice in later (1-2 weeks). The audience shouted that Maine no longer gets to 30 below zero.
      Dr. McNally stated that the deepest ice cores taken showed mini ice ages at least 21 times (naturally cyclical) and then at the deepest area, they hit leaves. It has been proven that at that time frame, there was a dramatic, rapid change, occuring over a six-year period only. He is afraid we may be facing that kind of a scenario within 10 years. Once the Tundra is exposed and the methane escapes, anything goes. He feels it is too late but that all aware people must be ready to adapt. Start saving seeds and stop driving your car immediately. The carbon you emit today from your vehicle will still be here in 115 years. He does not believe in end times philosophy, just the science of climate instability and a deep understanding of the profound effect that methane gas releases will have on the planet.
      _________________________________________________________

      Climate Change in Maine: the Problem, Response and Impact on Farms

      Summary from Stephen S. Mulkey, Ph.D. Unity College President

      By 2020 we will see the melting tundra release methane gas which will lead to disaster. Throughout the course of history we were always around 280 parts per million CO2 levels. This is now an undeniable fact. In 1980, we were at 328 parts per million. We are now at 393 parts per million. We must get down to 350 parts per million. Analogy: If you drain a bathtub at the same rate as you fill it, you are OK. But instead, we have and extra straw sized hose that is adding to the bathtub water. Over 100 years, you can see how the bathtub will overflow. There has been a 3 degree centigrade rise in temperature. There is a double digit rise in Alaska. This is a HUGE change, we are desperate and out of time. Everything will peak in 2020.

      Dr. Mulkey challenges every national academy to speak out on this issue. The scientific evidence is VERY CLEAR and VERY COMPELLING on this issue.

      smulkey@unity.edu
      Unity College: America's Environmental College

      Further comments from Lou McNally, Ph.D.

      THERE IS NO DEBATE!
      We have real work to do. Let the other people go into a room and polarize themselves! The media is complicit to the problem. We must make everyone lower their emissions. If a corporation/company can save money, then they will. We can make them save money by energy efficiency, renewable implementation. They would do it for financial reasons, without even being motivated to decrease carbon emissions. We must show them how. There has been twice as many weather events since 1980.

      Dylan Voorhees, Natural Resources Council of Maine

      We are all a part of this problem. We must all be a part of the solution.

      In Maine, industrial emissions have decreased but the transportation and residential CO2 emissions have increased.

      The Koch (Coke) brothers are paying lobbyists in Maine to influence the Environmental Advisory Group's recommendations.

      Energy efficiency saves money across the board. We must all support Efficiency Maine.

      We need clean fuel standards to stop the pollution in fuels. Stop the tar sands.

      Anne D. Burt, Maine Partner for Cool Communities

      Clean air zones – no idling campaign: no idling for more than five minutes in
      turnpike park and ride zones. Goal: weatherize every business and home by 2020. Home energy savings program, PACE loan program. Easiest way is to leave the naysayers alone and just take action ourselves. In 10 years it will be totally over. We must do it ourselves NOW!

    • 8 months ago
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  
    • Image

    • http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/24/gop-we-need-a-%E2%80%98time-out%...

      GOP: We need a ‘time out’ from regulations
      By: CNN's Ashley Killough

      (CNN) – For the second week in a row, Republicans called for the downsizing of federal regulations in the private sector.

      “We Republicans say, enough is enough,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in the GOP weekly address Saturday. “America needs a ‘time out’ from the regulations that discourage job creation and hurt our economy.”

      Her speech follows weeks of intense debate in Washington over ways to jump-start the economy, including President Barack Obama’s proposed $447 billion jobs plan.

      But Republicans insist that government “over-regulation” is perhaps the biggest factor standing in the way of job growth.

      Collins claimed that federal agencies are drawing up more than 4,200 new rules, 845 of which affect small businesses.

      She cited a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule on boiler emissions, arguing that even the EPA admits the rule would “cost the private sector billions of dollars” and thousands of jobs.

      “Business owners are reluctant to create jobs today if they're going to need to pay more tomorrow to comply with onerous new regulations,” Collins

    • 8 months ago
  • Forgotten_Echo
    • +1
      Forgotten_Echo  

    • This is just one more example of why EVERYONE should get to the ballot boxes and cast their vote, whether they think it does any good or not! Over the past few months I have read numerous comments here of people voicing their right to not vote in 2012. As well, in my daily travels I have heard even more people saying they were not going to vote for they felt it wouldn't do any good anyways.

      This type of legislation is what your "no-vote" is going to bring about. The Tea Party is relying upon this and they know that the likely outcome is going to be a low voter turnout, one in which their own will sweep the races. They are currently changing voter laws throughout many states to favor Tea Party/Conservative voters as it is. Anyone's refusal to vote is nothing more than a vote for the Tea Party and the eminent destruction of this country and everything that has been fought for in the past 235+ years.

    • 8 months ago
  • cherry5000
  • totally_dilapidated
  • sugarmountian
  • Schnookums
  • GRC54
    • 0
      GRC54  

    • The thing is that all the regulations in effect create more jobs than not having these regulations. The corporations are the ones who want this done so they can make more in profits as they have to pay to clean up the planet from the pollution they created.

    • 8 months ago
  • rossmick
    • +3
      rossmick  

    • Interesting logic, good for business, but it will kill you and you children so let's pass it right away. Where do these people come from - maybe Hell its self?
      Again, why aren't the D's screaming bloody murder and exposing the R's for the evil they represent?
      Come on D’s act like you have some integrity and real interest in this country.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • rossmick:

      Yes, they love corporations more than their own families. It's downright evil. And notice how they use jobs as the excuse to toxify our air when they haven't created any to begin with for all of their talk not even realizing or caring that when people are sick they can't work.

    • 8 months ago
  • wynnmeg61
  • cherry5000
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • Obama has no choice but to veto this should it make it that far. He has let down the environment enough. Next is the Keystone XL decision.

    • 8 months ago
  • wynnmeg61
    • 0
      wynnmeg61  

    • Well I am certainly glad to hear that Obama will veto this if it reaches his desk. We need to reinforce the regulatory abilities of the EPA rather than allow the polluters to continually defang the agency.

    • 8 months ago
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