The attack on gas-powered vehicles exists on multiple fronts, including through federal and state regulation.Regarding federal regulation, much of the attention has been focused on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) de facto electric vehicle mandate.However, there is another Biden EPA action that would likely lead to an even worse result. In its closing days, the Biden administration granted a waiver allowing California to move forward with its gas-powered car ban (Advanced Clean Cars … [Read more...]
Reasons Why Regulating CO2 Emissions Needs to be Reconsidered
March 7, the Washington Post reported the EPA Administrator is considering recommending to the White House that the EPA’s 2009 CO2 Endangerment Finding be rescinded. Let’s look at a few of the reasons why this might be a good thing to consider.The ScienceThe science of human-caused climate change is much more uncertain that you have been led to believe. The globally-averaged surface temperature of Earth seems to have warmed by 1 deg. C or so in the last century. The magnitude of the warming … [Read more...]
A Coalition Letter Opposing the Confirmation of Joseph Goffman as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation
Washington, DC26th July 2022Dear Chairman Carper, Ranking Member Capito, and Members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works:The undersigned organizations and individuals write to express and explain our opposition to the confirmation of Joseph Goffman as Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation in the Environmental Protection Agency.Mr. Goffman served in the EPA’s Air and Radiation Office during the Obama administration as Senior Counsel 2009-17 and in addition as Associate … [Read more...]
EPA’s totalitarian assault on America
Biden-Harris Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is clearly on a mission. He has “bold aspirations, and a long to-do list,” says The Washington Post. But to succeed, the Post acknowledges, he must “help the EPA get its groove back.” As Regan put it, “We’ve got a lot of work to do, starting with rebuilding staff morale and getting all our staff back to feeling as if they matter, their voices matter.” Regan says his job is “to restore the scientific integrity … [Read more...]
50th Earth Day: Compassionate concern for humans and their habitat
A measured response to COVID-19 must balance health and economic needsFifty years of weather have passed since the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. This was the same year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established and the federal Clean Air Act was promulgated.Over the past five decades, since I rode my bike to school celebrating that inaugural day, the nation’s air quality has improved markedly. Particle and gaseous pollutants have been reduced tremendously, and … [Read more...]
Ending ‘Sue-and -Settle’ Extortion
Last week, federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a directive aimed at reducing “sue-and-settle” lawsuits. For those who like voters to have input in the creation of environmental regulation, this is a great move. For decades, environmental advocacy groups have exerted outsized influence—and profited financially—from “friendly” lawsuits against the EPA. These lawsuits have been a conduit for activists inside and outside the EPA to get new regulations in … [Read more...]
Pruitt Sounds Death Knell for Scandalous “Sue-and-Settle” at EPA
One of the reasons the Cornwall Alliance supported President Donald Trump's nomination of Scott Pruitt, at the time Oklahoma Attorney General, as Administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was that Pruitt "publicly opposed the abuse of the court system by use of 'sue-and-settle' to reach sweetheart deals between the EPA and environmental advocacy groups." That was sweet news to anyone familiar with the way Green advocacy groups had abused the legal system, with full … [Read more...]
A Potpourri of Interesting Articles
Just been too busy to write much in the way of blog posts lately, but here are some articles I've thought particularly well worth sharing lately: Falling Sea Level: The Critical Factor in 2016 Great Barrier Reef Bleaching! by Jim Steele. "It is puzzling why the recent 2017 publication in Nature, Global Warming And Recurrent Mass Bleaching Of Corals by Hughes et al. ignored the most critical factor affecting the 2016 severe bleaching along the northern Great Barrier Reef – the regional fall … [Read more...]
Exiting the Paris Climate Agreement
Scant evidence of expected benefit means Scott Pruitt is right Washington Times, Monday, April 17, 2017 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appeared on “Fox & Friends” April 13 and said, “Paris is something we really need to look at closely, because it’s something we need to exit, in my opinion.” Why? “It’s a bad deal for America. China and India had no obligations under the agreement until 2030, we front-loaded all of our costs, at the expense of … [Read more...]
Trump’s Rollback of EPA Overreach: What No One is Talking About
President Trump’s actions yesterday (March 28) to rein in the EPA on a number of fronts involves the usual tension between environment and prosperity. Trump has rightly asserted that we can have both a relatively clean environment and prosperity, but this falls on deaf ears in the environmental community. His actions are painted as Republican’s desire to harm your children, because a more polluted environment is claimed to be worse for human health and welfare than achieving a cleaner … [Read more...]
