The EPA, claiming authority under the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA ) of 1996, says it will adopt on August 1 a new rule that “will allow the EPA to garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order.” Robert Gordon explains how this is both wrong and dangerous.
Larry Bell recalls what Bush Administration officials said would happen if the Clean Air Act were extended to incorporate regulation of carbon dioxide -- and none of it was good. In the words of CEQ chair James Connaughton, the “case-by-case application of old regulations to an entirely new set of circumstances and parties foreshadows unrelenting confusion, conflicts over compliance, and decades-long litigation windfall for attorneys, consultants, and activists, as communities and the courts strive to sort it all out.”
The new crisis in Iraq, which could soon sharply curtail shipments of Iraqi oil to Western nations, provides an excellent opportunity for President Obama to jumpstart a geat turnaround of the stagnant U.S. economy. To make up for lost Middle Eastern oil, the President could approve the Keystone XL pipeline, open more federal lands and offshore waters to oila nd gas drilling; and encourage other states to join the fracking parade. But that is not likely happen without additional pressure from the American people.
The Obama administration expects, as time marches on, their anti-carbon, green energy policies will become permanent fixture of the American political culture. This would almost certainly lead to job losses, higher energy costs, and perhaps America’s economic decline.
Marita Noon excoriates the Obama Administration for its stonewalling on Freedom of Information Act requests -- and for its chutzpah in ignoring the law in using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Clean Air Act to restrict access to public and private lands for farming, ranching, and energy development, and reduce the availability of affordable electricity—making essential food and power costs ever-increasing. To stop this unlawful onslaught, Noon urges citizens to utilize the Information Quality Act
CFACT Senior Policy Advisor Paul Driessen lists several reasons that the National Climate Assessment is borderline science fiction and has little basis in reality -- to distract the public from real issues; to justify job-killing regulatory policies; to obscure real-world climate changes; to protect and expand the flow of money to political friends and cronies; and to drive an agenda that is designed, in the words of Chief Science Advisor John Holdren, to "de-develop" the United States.
The Golden state of California is impoverishing its citizens with higher prices for energy of all kinds -- and boasting of its energy "progress" which it is gaining at the expense of other states and even countries. While, thanks in large part to hydrofracturing technology, the U.S. has cut oil imports from 60% to just 28% of its total needs, California's oil production fulfills just 38% of its needs, and 29% of its electricity comes from out-of-state. Gasoline prices are the second highest in the nation -- and are projected to rise another 170% over the next decade. And Californians pay twice the national average for residential electricity.
As dangerous as current EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and her former colleague Al Amendariz were, recent revelations indicate that two other EPA officials -- convicted felon John Beale and Robert Brenner -- may have been much worse. The pair concocted the sue-and-settle scheme that provides virtual kickbacks to "friendly" plaintiffs. They also manipulated scientific studies and even authorized illegal experiments on human test subjects to "justify" extremely stringent EPA regulations that slow or reverse business development -- and now the EPA claims it cannot find the scientific data upon which some major job-killing rules were supposedly based.
There are a lot of theories as to the real reason the Bureau of Land Management has chosen this time to try to seize Cliven Bundy's cattle and shut down his ranch. The most easily disproven theory is that the cattle are threatening the desert tortoise. Others suggest that Senator Harry Reid, whose lieutenant now runs the BLM, has a secret deal with the Chinese to build a huge solar array on the property. Marita Noon believes she has uncovered a third possibility -- that the BLM wants to control the mineral rights to oil and natural gas in the area.
Marita Noon reports on some of the vagaries faced by buyers of rooftop solar panels. Florida purchasers were stuck with bills of up to $40,000 for systems that may be unusable or unsafe installed by now-bankrupt companies who will not honor warranties. Elsewhere, firefighters have discussed the risks (electrocution is just one) from fighting fires in buildings with rooftop solar installations. Other solar companies mislead customers or even take their money and disappear.
The EPA is at it again -- using fraudulent science to justify lowering automotive sulfur content from 30 ppm to 10 ppm -- after already reducing the sulfur allowable from 300 to 30 ppm just since 2004. EPA makes the bold, fraudulent claim that the rules will cost consumers less than a penny a gallon. Meanwhile, EPA has doled out $181 million to 15 of its Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee members in grants since 2000, which hardly makes them independent. CFACT's Paul Driessen makes a strong case for ending million-dollar payoffs to advisory groups and much more effective legislative and judiciary oversight of unaccountable government agenices like the EPA.
Thanks to a grassroots outcry against injustice, Virginia lawmakers passed a new law, signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, that protects family farmers from encroachment by local governments. Martha Boneta had been barred by her county government from selling produce, fined for hosting a birthday party, and threatened with the loss of her entire farm. Environmental groups and county governments provided the major opposition to the bill.
For years environmentalists have usurped individual private property rights and thwarted economic development. Now, thanks to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, it appears that the job creators may have finally learned something from the extreme tactics of groups, like the Wild Earth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which have been using the courts to their advantage by filing lawsuits against the federal government.
Ron Arnold details the story of how industry, environmentalists, and regulators are working together to overcome a paradoxical EPA rule that allows PCBs in products but bans the disposal of wastewater containing PCB residues. This story, sadly, is atypical of today's EPA, especially as it applies to energy and water issues.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned, we are told. Will President Obama be playing golf when terrorists attack the U.S. power grid so as to force a massive, multi-state blackout? Or will he and colleagues like Secretary of State Kerry and EPA Administrator McCarthy remain wholly focused on their own efforts to shut down the power grid through regulations and (as they did with BenGhazi and the Fort Hood shooter) refuse even to brand such an act as terrorist?