The environmental police have struck again. This time, they are hindering efforts to produce domestic oil and causing regulation headaches for those just doing their jobs. Agencies partaking in a natural gas drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are facing a lawsuit alleging that they’ve failed to give proper environmental review to regulations related to the technique. Critics fear that without proper regulatory oversight, the process will lead to water contamination. But these fears are unfounded. Fracking is nothing new and those behind the lawsuit are ignoring the …
Normally, in exchange for a loan, you agree to pay the bank the principal borrowed along with interest. You would never think of then giving the money back to the bank so that the bank could remodel, sweep the parking lot, or buy cases of those squiggly government-approved light bulbs. If the bank wants to do that, they can pay for it themselves. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does things differently. While the People’s Republic of China holds over $1.1 trillion of our debt, EPA is busy giving grants to …
In November 2009, a dozen protesters triggered a traffic jam in an intersection of Chicago’s financial sector by laying down in a circle in the middle of the road, locking their arms together inside pieces of pipe. They were protesting the city’s climate exchange, part of a scheme to regulate CO2 emissions through permits. Ironically, it was a case of a left-leaning plan being attacked by the far left. After a few hours, the activists were arrested, including among their ranks members of groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO). …
There are an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil waiting to be tapped in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Alaska. But after spending five years and nearly $4 billion, Shell Oil Company has been forced to abandon its efforts to drill for oil in the region. With gas at $4 per gallon and higher, one might think that more oil would be a good thing. So what’s the road block? The Environmental Protection Agency. Fox News reports that the EPA is withholding necessary air permits because of a …
Acid rain. Expanding deserts. Global cooling. As Reason.tv explains in its video “The Top Five Environmental Disasters That Didn’t Happen,” all of the above were moments of environmental hysteria that led to nothing. Others they cite? Frankenfoods, the end of biodiversity (the claim that 70-80% of the Earth’s species would be extinct by 1995), running out of energy, a “silent spring” (an apocalyptic prediction about pesticides), and Malthusian famine (hundreds of millions of people starving to death by the 1970s). Under the Obama Administration, concerns over the environment — and …
The Environmental Protection Agency, which boasts 18,000 full-time employees, a $10 billion budget, and has the power to impose economy-crippling regulations on the American way of life, has admitted a dangerous truth: to them, jobs just don’t matter. In a hearing Thursday before the House Environment and Economy Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Co) questioned EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus on the Agency’s economic analyses related to legislation. Specifically, Rep. Gardner asked whether the EPA considers the effect its regulations have on jobs. His answer: nope, it does not directly examine …
Realizing the costs and folly of instituting a massive greenhouse gas regulatory regime, Members of Congress stopped cap-and-trade legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2), from becoming law in the last Congress. But their job is not complete. Now unelected bureaucrats at the EPA are attempting to bypass the legislative process through regulatory dictate by using The Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide. The problem is that Congress never intended The Clean Air Act to cover CO2 and the result of doing so would extract …
The Senate is expected to vote today on several amendments that would affect the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) told reporters that it’s now or never and voting on the amendments will “get rid of that issue one way or the other.” Policymakers have introduced a number of legislative fixes, both bad and good, to address the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. A temporary fix by means of a two-year delay is no fix …
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is suffering policy schizophrenia. On the one hand, it has ordered automakers to increase fuel efficiency to save the planet from global warming. On the other hand, it is setting higher quotas of ethanol in gasoline, which will decrease fuel efficiency and increase emissions of the greenhouse gases that the EPA claims cause global warming. Both actions will cost consumers and the economy a bundle. The stricter fuel-efficiency standards require automakers to attain a fleet-wide average fuel economy level of 34.1 mpg by model year …
In 1999, the Clinton Environmental Protection Agency released a report required by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act which estimated the economic benefits of the legislation to be $170 billion in 2010. Sounds believable. Fast forward to last week, the Obama EPA released their own report on the economic benefits of the Clean Air Act in 2020. Total CAA benefits according to the Obama the EPA: $2 trillion. A more than 1000% increase. Did the Clean Air Act get 1000% better in just 10 years? Or did the …
