NEWS ALERT: Obama set to announce steeper emissions cuts from US power plants

President Barack Obama will impose steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants across the country than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.
The Obama administration is expected to finalize the rule at a White House event on Monday, a year after proposing unprecedented carbon dioxide limits. Obama, in a video posted on Facebook, said the limits were backed up by decades of data and facts showing that without tough action, the world will face more extreme weather and escalating health problems like asthma.


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Earth Day’s Big Lie

Monday, April 22, is Earth Day. Begun in 1970, it led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. It is the global platform for the Big Lie that carbon dioxide (CO2) is causing the Earth to warm and the basis of the environmental movement’s ceaseless efforts to reduce the use of energy for any reason.
Carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has been increasing, but the Earth has been cooling due to reduced solar radiation. CO2 has virtually no relationship to the climate except to show up well after a significant change has occurred.

On April 18, the Wall Street Journal reported that the International Energy Agency had announced that, despite spending “more than $2 trillion in investment into renewable-energy projects…the world had made almost no progress over the past 20 years in reducing the carbon content of its energy supplies.” It has never needed reduction. How many hospitals, schools, bridges, and other useful things that could have been built instead?

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Ore. pushes forward stalled clean-fuel standards

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Oregon's stalled effort to reduce greenhouse gases from cars and trucks could get new life soon, as the state pushes for a new pollution-reporting mandate for fuel providers and the Legislature prepares to take a fresh look at the program.

The first test comes Friday, when a state environmental panel will decide whether to force oil producers to report the amount of carbon emissions associated with their fuels.

A bigger fight will come next year, when environmental groups and others will ask the Legislature to extend the life of the Oregon Clean Fuels Program beyond its current expiration in 2015. The move would allow the state to go beyond a reporting requirement and begin forcing fuel providers to reduce the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Read more at the Gazette-Times

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Collapse of Chicago Climate Exchange is Personal Setback for Obama

SUITE 101, 11/12/2010 by John O'Sullivan - Republican mid-term election joy deals financial uncertainty among green investors as the Chicago Climate Exchange announces the end of U.S. carbon trading. Read more at Suite101: Carbon Trade Ends on Quiet Death of Chicago Climate Exchange

Related:
Ballot Pedia: California's Proposition 23 defeated
Western Climate Initiative (Oregon is one of eleven western states involved) Read More......

WH to Congress: Energy-only bill would be ‘unfortunate’

THE HILL/E2 Wire, 4/6/2010 by Ben Geman - White House climate czar Carol Browner said Tuesday that the Obama administration is urging Senate lawmakers not to proceed with an “energy only” bill that shelves limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Read more at The Hill's energy & environment blog... Read More......

EPA: Greenhouse Gases Hazardous to Your Health

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, 12/7/2009 by Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter - Announcement comes as big global warming conference begins in Copenhagen. ∴ U.S. environmental officials said Monday that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide endanger people's health. ∴ The so-called endangerment finding was announced by Lisa P. Jackson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at an afternoon press conference. It could signal a possible first step by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. But Jackson said the agency would prefer that Congress pass legislation that would limit production of the pollutants. Read more at US News... Read More......

EU reconsiders green laws to shore up industry

Sectors affected by the ongoing recession – including cars and the chemical industry – will be offered specific treatment under a revised industrial policy to be agreed by EU ministers today (28 May). ∴ EU ministers responsible for industry, trade and research are due to agree a new approach to industrial policy that takes greater care of key sectors such as the chemicals and automotive industries as Europe battles through its worst economic recession since the 1930s. ∴ Germany in particular reckons that all additional environmental legislation should be put on ice until economic conditions return to normal, according to one senior diplomatic source. ∴ The REACH regulation on chemicals and the extension of carbon dioxide emission limits to light duty vehicles in the automotive sector were both cited as areas where industry will be offered special treatment. ∴ The aim is to soften the impact of Europe's strict environmental rules as industries fight their way through the economic recession. Read more at EurActiv... Read More......

Re: HB2186: Write Now!!!....Right now (please)

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AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY writes: HB 2186, pending before the Oregon Legislature, is a dangerous bill! HB 2186 will be considered on the floor of the House next Tuesday, and we need you to respond immediately to send your Legislators a message that they need to vote against this legislation. This bill is an effort to sneak global warming restrictions through in the guise of expanded State Agency powers.

HB 2186 would grant the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality broad but poorly defined powers to regulate greenhouse gasses within our economy. It provides DEQ with a virtual "blank check" to implement any new regulations the Agency deems necessary to reduce CO2. Studies have shown that an effort to limit CO2 emissions in Oregon will cost our state almost 100,000 jobs - at a time when our state has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation. DEQ would be able to ban - without public input - any product it deemed "contains too much carbon."

The DEQ has expressed interest in adopting the greenhouse gas regulations currently in force in California. Coupled with the bill's mandate of a 10 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020, the most likely response is a mandate to increase the use of ethanol fuel which presents a fire hazard, causes lower vehicle performance and can cause damage to vehicles. In addition, the bill allows DEQ to adopt "green tire" standards for passenger cars that would increase tire costs and limit consumer tire choice. All these costs will be passed along to Oregon vehicle owners.

In addition, DEQ is considering requiring expensive retrofits for the entire Oregon private medium- and heavy-duty trucking fleet to reduce aerodynamic drag. Since Oregon has so few manufacturing facilities due to the high cost of doing business and the government's hostility to business, most products must be brought into our state by truck or rail. The retrofit cost estimates for the fleet run as high as $4.5 billion - a price that will be passed along to Oregon consumers. The bill also allows DEQ to restrict truck and ship idling - in California this means shutting off your engine when idling for more than five minutes at any location.

HB 2186 is a bad bill that will cost Oregon jobs and our economy billions of dollars. Efforts to fight global warming at the state and federal levels are just an excuse to raise our taxes and make us pay more to heat our homes, drive our cars and buy the products we use every single day. I urge you to add your voice to those opposing HB 2186.

Yours In Freedom,

Jeff Kropf, State Director
Americans for Prosperity – Oregon Read More......