Check out this YouTube video of a polar bear activist challenging Steve Milloy at his April 13 Heritage Foundation presentation of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them.
Video courtesy of the Komrade Sarah Karlin of Campus Oppression and the Center for Anti-American Progress.
In advance of Thursday’s expected announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide from automobiles is a threat to public health and welfare and, therefore, is subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act — the so-called “endangerment” finding — rumors are flyign around town that businesses may sue the agency.
This is a loser strategy that will accomplish nothing other than to make Beltway lawyers richer.
The Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that EPA can regulate CO2 if it finds that it is a hazard to public health and welfare.
As long as the EPA is not “arbitrary and capricious” in deciding that CO2 is such a threat, the agency will win in federal court.
The “arbitrary and capricious” standard of the Administrative Procedures Act is a notoriously lax (i.e., pro-agency) standard. It’s really a non-standard that essentially allows federal agencies to get away with regulatory murder. As long as the EPA can point to some (any) rationale for CO2 being a threat — however ludicrous in the real world, even the UN reports — the agency will win.
An appeal to the current (and likely future) Supremes won’t succeed as the tie-breaking vote between the four conservative justices (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito) and the four liberal justices (Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter and Breyer) is Anthony Kennedy — a pseudo-conservative who, enjoying swing-vote status, voted for Massachusetts (and against the Bush administration) in the earlier case.
Industry should instead fight back on a political level — the 2010 elections. A bill to block the EPA from acting on its finding should be introduced immediately. It should be made clear to any politician opposing such a bill that his job is at stake. The bill effort should be backed-up by CO2 TEA parties.
Anadarko CEO James Hackett displayed this week the courage that more U.S. CEOs need to muster against the greens. According to Reuters:
Washington’s energy and environmental policy risks plunging the United States into an economic tailspin that could make it “the world’s cleanest third world country,” a top U.S. oil executive was reported as saying by the Financial Times newspaper.
“The histrionic and maniacal focus on carbon dioxide is intellectually repugnant to me,” FT reported James Hackett, chairman and chief executive of independent oil and gas company Anadarko (APC.N), as saying in an interview.
Our Hero:
The Air Transport Association, the trade association for U.S. airline industry, told Carbon Control News this week that it didn’t “think that an emissions trading scheme is necessary.”
Instead of CO2 controls, the ATA said, policymakers should seek to modernize the government-run air traffic control system — which by some estimates could reduce airline fuel usage by around 10 percent — before penalizing the industry in the form of mandatory CO2 controls, according to Carbon Control News.
David Frum’s dubious attempt to “[build] a conservatism that can win again” features a piece from Washington, DC attorney John Murdock entitled “Global Warming: It’s true, get used to it.”
An earlier posting by Murdock reveals his basic thinking:
If this is the “the new conservatism under construction,” Murdock and Frum (who edits the NewMajority.com blog) are going to need hard hats.
Read Steve Milloy’s FoxNews.com column “Al Gore and Venus Envy” for a debunking of the Venus point and watch Steve Milloy’s award-winning YouTube video “Al Gore debates global warming” for a debunking of the other CO2 factoids.
Worse than his ignorance is Murdock’s cavalier dissing of columnist George Will, Chris Horner (author of Red Hot Lies), Weather Channel founder John Coleman and Steve Milloy (author of Green Hell).
For his clients’ sakes, I sure hope Murdock is better at lawyering than blogging about global warming.
Finally, conservatism doesn’t need to be rebuilt; it just needs to offer candidates that are actual and articulate conservatives — i.e., no Bushes and/or McCains need apply. Meantime, the greens will no doubt applaud the well-intentioned fools who call themselves “conservatives” while advancing the socialist cause in America.
War has been declared in New York over global warming regulation!
Indeck Corinth L.P., which operates the Corinth Generating Station, an electric power plant in Corinth, NY, sued New York state on January 29, 2009 claiming that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeast U.S. is illegal.
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Rhode Island have signed on to the RGGI agreement.
Indeck Corinth claims that New York’s involvement with RGGI,
Click here for a copy of Indeck Corinth’s complaint.
Indeck Corinth and New York State are now arguing over the venue for the suit. Indeck Corinth wants the suit heard in Saratoga County where it is a major employer. New York wants the suit heard in Albany County where it has homefield advantage.
Congrats to Indeck Corinth for having the courage to challenge green aggression, oppression and regression!
I don’t want to spoil the Washington Times review of Steve Milloy’s new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, but former White House speechwriter John R. Coyne, Jr. describes Green Hell as:
strongly written and well-documented… convincing
Check out Coyne’s review and then rush off to Amazon.com to get your copy of Green Hell!
If you think of it, get an extra copy for a friend, colleague or family member who needs to be wised up on the green threat!
The Free Enterprise Action Fund has challenged Citigroup regarding the bank’s support for the so-called “Carbon Principles” — a green-inspired effort to deny financing to the coal industry and electric utilities that burn coal.
The Fund’s challenge is in the form of a shareholder proposal that appears in Citigroup’s 2009 proxy statement and that will be voted on at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on April 21. The proposal requests that Citigroup,
… describe the environmental impacts of its implementation of the Carbon Principles so that shareholders can determine for themselves whether such impacts are worth the reputational damage being inflicted on the source of 50 percent of the
U.S. electricity supply.
Take action:
1. Shareholders of Citigroup should vote “FOR” Proposal 9.
2. Attend the Citigroup meeting in New York City so that you can personally tell CEO Vikram Pandit that America needs coal-fired electricity not green oppression.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has initiated the celebration of ‘Human Achievement Hour’ (HAH) between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on March 28, 2009 in response to and coinciding with Earth Hour, a period during which governments, individuals, and corporations have agreed to dim or shut off lights in an effort to draw attention to climate change.
Unlike Earth Hour, the purpose Human Achievement Hour is to salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible. Many organizations and average folks around the world will show their support for human achievement by simply going about their daily lives.
The celebration of Human Achievement Hour has already garnered sneers and criticism from some of those supporting Earth Hour—they have even had the HAH Wikipedia entry deleted. In spite of all this, we believe that it is important that people around the world participate with us in acknowledging the achievements accomplished by the human race.
Please check out these links to the great new video and other info below, and help us spread the word about HAH–and let’s utilize the social web to do so!
Climate Control News reported today that,
While [federal] budget rules in theory allow lawmakers to revisit a preferred fast-track strategy for climate legislation later this year, White House aides are now acknowledging the political downsides of such a strategy and suggesting a cap-and-trade bill may have to be considered under more conventional legislative procedures.
As reported here on March 17, eight Democratic Senators told President Obama that they wouldn’t support his sneaky effort to fast-track climate legislation through the federal budget process.
Take action:
Grab local/state/federal politicians by their lapels and shake them until they vow to oppose global warming legislation with all their might.
The green group 1Sky.org is planning for a massive grassroots lobbying effort during the two-week congressional recess in April.
Click here for the 1Sky.org target list of congressman.
Take action:
Use the 1Sky list to lobby these members for yourself. Tell them that global warming legislation will:
A vote for the greens is a vote against you and America.
Congressional Republicans have issued their “Principles for Economic Recovery,” one of which is:
KEEPING ENERGY AND FUEL COSTS LOW
Instead of taxing all energy users with a new “cap and tax” scheme that will cost an average of up to $3,128 per household, Republicans want energy independence with increased exploration and the development of new and renewable energy sources.
Blocking the green takeover of our economy is a winning political issue for Republicans — and a necessity for the rest of us.
Steve Milloy’s new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them explains why.