Obama rules to raise power prices 25% in Southeast

President Obama’s vow to make energy prices skyrocket will soon come true for ratepayers in the Southeast.

In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing concerning the EPA’s new emissions rules for power plants, industrial boilers and cement kilns, Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning said that his company would need to spend up to $4.1 billion over the next three years to comply with new EPA rules — costs that would translate into a 25 percent rise in electricity prices for its customers in the Southeast, according to Environment and Energy News.

PBDE study spotlights need for junk science retardants

While flame retardants “work silently to safeguard the public and fire fighters and reduce injuries and property damage from fires,” the junk science mob is noisily working to have them banned for no good reason. Continue reading PBDE study spotlights need for junk science retardants

Detailing the greenwashed Chevy Volt

The Chevy Volt gives the phrase “pay to pollute” a whole new meaning. Continue reading Detailing the greenwashed Chevy Volt

EPA: Breath causes cancer

We’d like to spotlight a interesting statement from the American Chemistry Council made in response to last week’s trashing of the EPA formaldehyde risk assessment by the National Research Council. Continue reading EPA: Breath causes cancer

Hair Scare: Enviros attack salon treatment

The cranks at the Environmental Working Group tried to amp up the tired, 35-year scare over formaldehyde yesterday with a release entitled, “Hair Straighteners Release Potent Carcinogen.”

Keying off the hair-straightening treatment known as the “Brazilian Blowout,” EWG wants to terrify salon workers and their customers about formaldehyde-containing products used in the treatment. Continue reading Hair Scare: Enviros attack salon treatment

RIP: Obama's National Climate Service

Last Friday’s budget deal blocks funding for the Obama administration’s National Climate Service (NCS). —>

Senate aide: Phony amendments saved EPA from wobbly Obama in budget deal

Although EPA’s allies are trying to sell the message that last week’s failure to rein in the EPA (through the McConnell amendment and budget deal riders) is some sort of validation of what the agency is doing, the reality is much different. Continue reading Senate aide: Phony amendments saved EPA from wobbly Obama in budget deal

House Dems press EPA on dioxin; Ben & Jerry's to the rescue!

Seventy-two House Democrats wrote to the EPA yesterday pressing the agency to complete its 20-years-in-the-making risk assessment on dioxin. Possibly they don’t know this, but one of the reasons the dioxin assessment has taken so long is that it was debunked and derailed by JunkScience.com and Ben & Jerry’s in November 1999. Continue reading House Dems press EPA on dioxin; Ben & Jerry's to the rescue!

Shale gas 'worse' than coal for climate?

Cornell University Prof. Robert Howarth claims in a new study that,

“Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20 percent greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon.”

A respectable but counting-the-number-of-angels-that-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin takedown of Howarth’s study may be found at EnergyInDepth.org.

But if you just want JunkScience.com’s cut-to-the-chase takedown, here it is:

Manmade emissions of CO2 from burning coal are not known to have had a discernible impact on climate. So even assuming that Howarth’s worst case scenario concerning shale gas was true, two times a non-discernible impact is still a non-discernible impact.

Next.

Tims of the day: House frosh oppose budget deal because EPA riders removed

Hats off to Reps. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) for voting against last Friday’s budget deal because the riders blocking EPA from regulating greenhouse gases were dropped. According to Climatewire, Scott, Huelskamp and probably others among the 28 House GOP who voted against the deal believed that restricting EPA was a “critical” component of the budget effort.

Winning! JunkScience.com knocks off anti-fracking professor

JunkScience.com’s recent spotlight on anti-fracking activist-researcher Conrad Volz has apparently led to Volz’s ouster from the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Pitt prof caught off base in new frack attack” exposed Volz’s flawed research and anti-fracking activism — a combo that was too much for Pitt. The Tribune-Review article refers to Canada Free Press’ reprint of the JunkScience.com article.

Junkman's fantasy: Budget impasse sends 90% of EPA apparatchiks home!

Greenwire reports,

About nine out of every 10 U.S. EPA employees will be furloughed if Congress and the president can’t reach an eleventh-hour budget deal, according to contingency plans released by the agency this morning.

But what about the children?

As I wrote in the Washington Times on February 9,

The EPA is coming for our jobs, electricity and economy. The Obama administration is preparing to make cap-and-trade look like a walk in the park compared to EPA regulation. Its regulatory apparatus is running amok.

Cut the EPA’s budget. Cut it in March. Close down the federal government if necessary. Save us now.

March may not have worked out, but cutting the EPA’s budget in April works, too.