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Two Powerful Blows Against Air Pollution Controls
The NYTimes reports from Washington on two separate actions on Friday that, between them, have halted Bush administration clean-air initiatives in their tracks. The current administration is no favorite of environmental groups, but these groups sided with the administration in a court case brought by the utility companies. On Friday an appeals court threw out the EPA's Clean Air Interstate Rule, established in 2005. The court ruled that the EPA had exceeded its authority when it established that rule, which set new requirements for major pollutants. According to the article, even the utilities were appalled to see the rule completely gutted; their objections had been narrower. Here is a podcast with the reporter (MP3) giving some background on the ruling. The second major blow to clean-air efforts came later in the day on Friday. Quoting: "...the EPA chief rejected any obligation to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide under existing law, saying that to do so would involve an 'unprecedented expansion' of the agency's authority that would have 'a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy,' touching 'every household in the land.'... In effect, Mr. Johnson was simultaneously publishing the policy analysis of his scientific and legal experts and repudiating its conclusions."
But on a more serious note.. I feel this administration has ruined out economy and now its after our environment.
This couldnt be more f'd up
this administration is just unbelievably evil, why not wait six months and try it with more enlightened minds?
Global warming and such is not really a problem for the industrialized world. If any problems arise we will just build technological solutions to overcome them. After all there is more money to be made in fixing problems than preventing them. As for the rest of the world. Who cares, they do not vote in our elections and besides that they have to cross oceans to get to us.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
you'll get modded to hell because you're a troll
Really? Trolls have a posting history as long as mine? I must be one dedicated troll.
your post is flamebait of the first degree
Because I disagree with another poster and the groupthink.
down to your counter-moderation comment and accusation of bias
You honestly expect me to believe that there isn't groupthink and bias here? It's almost gotten as bad as Digg and Reddit.
You are a bad troll at that.
Maybe I'm not a troll? Maybe I'm someone that - gasp, horror - disagrees?
You don't even have your claims right, different groups.
Uh, yes, I do.
The prediction of eating each other was from overpopulation, and that was never more than a fringe belief of a bunch of Malthusian believers and not based on any hard science.
Sorry there, buddy, but it wasn't a "fringe" view. Claiming it was, now, is pathetic CYAing because it didn't turn out that way.
The cooling trend was because of two factors, undocumented particulate effects and miscallibrated satellites producing erroneous data.
And the science is perfect now, right? Those guys back then had it wrong, but you have it right now?
Dude. Seriously. Fuck off. Call me when your neighbor is eating you alive and the temp is 150F.
If anyone can definitively prove it is not happening they'd get a Nobel prize for it.
Damn hard to get funding when the world doesn't want to hear a dissenting view.
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
And this post makes you even more of a troll. You are trolling this article.
And defending myself makes me a troll.
I rest my case.
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
I think there are some psychological classifications for people who don't see reality properly.
Because I disagree with the majority, you question my sanity?
It's a real shame that you can't do what the Soviets did to people who disagreed - that is, lock them away "for their own good", huh?
It would be so much easier for you and your ilk to "save the world" if people like me were thrown into a cell and silenced.
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
Your pathetic and droning tripe exemplifies all that is American failure. I am certain you believe what you say just as I am certain that Bush believes he knows how to pronounce the word nuclear. In any case you are an irrelevant troll. You and your like-minded breed should do society a favor and drown yourselves.
Hey, listen, shut the fuck up. You're exactly the sort of person uncreepyneighbor is attacking, and you're making the intelligent people who disagree with him look bad.
ResidntGeek
The same fucktards that ... predicted a global ice age during the 70s are the same fucktards behind global warming.
Cite please?
1976: National Geographic predicts global cooling.
Today: National Geographic predicts global warming.
Cool, the real president of the US wins a peace prize. It's like reality is fractured and we just saw an echo from the future that could have been..
Requiem for the American Dream
... could a thread whose topic is two separate court's overturning of Bush Administration initiatives to PROTECT the environment become a Bush-bashing free-for-all. The Bush Derangement Syndrome is strong with you, young Slashdotter. There's this thing called a "life" - try it some time.
It's very disgraceful that our government can blatantly ignore the constitution, but when it tries to pass laws controlling pollution it "exceeds its authorities".
If I had crazy left-wingers after my company, I'd relocate to Dubai as well.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
When we see a problem, we tend to talk about it but generally ignore it. We assume someone else will be responsible enough to handle it or just pretend it doesn't exist. It's not bad enough to fix.
Anyone over the age of 10 in 1972 was keenly aware of what happens when gas becomes scarce and the mistakes that were made then. People were being shot for gas. Automobile manufacturers were going bankrupt (Chrysler) because they didn't think there was a problem ("America buys what we build" - GM) until the Japanese gave us a severe drubbing.
And at the same time there was an Indian on TV standing by the side of a road with garbage being thrown at his feet. Down Chemical (my hometown) was routinely creating record breaking fish kills and chemical spills that emptied the town.
Thirty some years later people are acting all surprised by this crap. And they want someone else to take the burden for it.
We, as a nation, will do NOTHING about pollution simply because we have no solution which will not have a potentially negative impact to our economy. This is consistent with capitalism. China has a hot economy and epic pollution problems. We are trying to compete with that and don't believe we can if we try to stay clean at the same time.
Perhaps the solution is to go in a different direction. Make oil-independence a science, technology, and industry that the US can export. And do the same with environmentally designed processes and products. China will kick our ass on many industries and we will never be able to compete with them unless we abolish the EPA. But eventually China and others will have to face the same problems -- energy is limited and pollution is real.
And there are about 10,000 other nations that have an socio-economic evolutionary path somewhere in between the US and China who would all be interested in these technologies being developed. So we might not be selling to China, but we can sell to Europe, Western Asia, Africa, and South America, Australia.. That's a good customer base.
But, this pollution regulation thing -- we are not going to fix it with the current government system. They don't have a real interest in it. We've done enough damage with the Bush years and yet it's likely we won't elect a winner this time either -- none available. Just compromises and shell games.
No, we question your sanity because you make shit up, get histrionic, and claim that people want to throw you in jail.
Seriously, you're a nutter and you need help. You've got a persecution complex.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton