Manchin mad at Obama again (Updated with video)
In case you missed it yesterday, the president tried to divert our attention from his administration’s failures once again by announcing that he’s going to make the Environmental Protection Agency put new emission standards in place for coal-fired power generation stations. Somehow that will save the world’s environment because we tighten emission standards on the billion tons of coal that we burn in the US compared to the eight billion tons that are burned worldwide.
Of course, the cost of complying with these new standards will fall on consumers, raising the cost of our electricity, effectively a tax which will affect lower income workers most. In the middle of a jobless recession. You know like this administration changed the culture of the military in the middle of a war because intentions are more important than results.
Well, anyway, Joe Manchin, the junior Senator from West Virginia was just on Fox News expressing his outrage and telling us how he’s mad at the president for this announcement which will greatly impact this state, since we’re still a coal-based economy. He was elected here mainly because he was good on guns and good on coal. Since he was elected, he’s jumped in bed with Chuck Schumer over guns, so this latest faux-anger at the president over the expected hits to the coal industry and consumers will probably end up the same way.
Fox News admits that the process is a long one;
Under the process outlined in the Clean Air Act, the EPA cannot act unilaterally, but must work with states to develop the standards, said Jonas Monast, an attorney who directs the climate and energy program at Duke University. An initial proposal will be followed by a months-long public comment period before the EPA can issue final guidance to states. Then the states must create actual plans for plants within their borders, a process likely to take the better part of a year.
Then the EPA has another four months to decide whether to approve each state’s plan before the implementation period can start.
In other words, it’s another lawyer-employment opportunity, because most of the regs that come out of the EPA are litigated before they’re completely implemented.
Video added, below the jump;
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Economy
Understand that we already burn coal cleanly. We took out the ash and the sulfur decades ago. The ONLY “pollutant” they rely on for the purposes of regulation (cited in the linked article) is carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is also a byproduct of burning natural gas.
There is no principled difference between burning “clean” natural gas and coal. None.
This is BS. The air is cleaner now than it was when I was sex years old. If you take away the coal-fired plants, what’s left? Hydroelectric and nuclear. There hasn’t been a new nuke plant built in decades and the radioactive mess left behind at the Hanford site, which is now leaking again, is scarier than an earthquake in my area.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-22/us/40133129_1_raised-radiation-levels-radioactive-waste-double-shell
So what’s left if we close down coal-fired plants? I live a few miles from one such plant, which is being retrofitted for cleaner emissions, and about 20 miles from another that is a clean-burner. The Zion nuke reactor facility was shut down during the Clinton administration and is being dismantled. What’s left?
Its merely more of that Obama Department of Wealth Redistribution(DoWR) plan to drag everybody except the super rich that have invested heavily in trading “carbon credits” in this country and others, wanting to drag us (but not them) back to living in the 19th century or earlier.
While you are essentially right, the other problem is that once the new regs are in place, other groups can sue to have the regs strengthened.
Then, after that, when those suits are decided (being paid for by the consumer) the EPA can come back with new regulations that can (and has in the past) make the mandated equipment the power plants just installed at the cost of millions or billions of dollars, obsolete.
The administration does not care about the cost of energy and its disparate impact on mid to low income families.
It is a case of the frog in the pot of water. The end game here is to create another Spain, Germany or England in the terms of energy where the appearance of doing something meets the reality of people cutting down trees to heat their homes in winter.
Carbon dioxide is now labeled as a “pollutant”. Does that make us human beings and our animals pollution sources? What’s next, breathing taxes, or are we going to be told to wear masks that measure the volume of air we breathe and get taxed accordingly? Acid rain used to be a peobelm, we don’t hear about that anymore, it’s gone the way of the hole in the ozone layer. Despite the many improvements in recent decades, politicians and bureaucrats are NOT going to let things get in the way of their quest for more bureaucratic power and control over our everyday lives, B. Hussein 0bama & Co. prove it every day with their assaults on our freedoms!
In the 70s, we were all going to die because glaciers were going to spread and destroy our major cities.
In the 80s, we were all going to die because overpopulation was going to pack us in A to B even in the rural areas.
In the 90s, we were all going to die because the oceans were going to be depleted of fish.
In the 00s, we were all going to die because of global warming.
Ten years later, we were all going to die because of climate change.
Their batting average has been pretty bad so far. Why listen to them now?
@1 – and carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant, it is a necessary ingredient for life.
This is all just a squirrel to distract from all the scandals and the $100 million trip to Africa on the taxpayer dime.
Obama “Let’s see…we have Benghazi, Snowden, the NSA, the IRS, reducing our military strength…what should we make top priority. The EPA, Twinkies, my wife’s big butt…and the survey says….the EPA. Yea a greener, lawyer making cluster f@ck for every state. Yea that’s the ticket. Those other things are just side issues I wish would go away. (especially my wife’s butt).” “PRESS AGENT, PRESS AGENT! I have a news release! And get me a tee time!”
Manchin is being played like a bitch by Obama and the democrats, just like Obama is being played like a bitch by Russia and China.
as Toolio said “electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket”
The other day, Manchin said something else which should shock the hell out of anyone who possesses at least a scintilla of understanding of our government and our Constitution. Said Joe: “Somebody better be looking at what are my liberties, what are my rights, what are my freedoms. What did my founding fathers intend for me to have as an American?”
Can you believe that? A US Senator who wants somebody to be looking out for his freedoms, liberties, and rights; one who wants to create a special office to help him understand what our Founding Fathers intended in setting forth, in the US Constitution, the powers and limitations of the Federal government. I could just flippin’ cry. I really could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4 don’t know if you allow links, but it’s in his own words
Proud Infidel: we already have a tax on breathing in the US Code. It’s called Obamacare’s “health insurance mandate” and the fee charged for noncompliance.
@ #11: And here I thought that is what every federal employee (elected, appointed, pencil pusher, warrior, each and every one of them) was supposed to be doing!
Here’s an idea for ya Mr. Senator – how’s about firing everyone we are currently paying who is involved with anything other than insuring our collective rights and freedoms. Yes, I understand that you are not in the business of hiring or firing folks in the executive branch, but they cannot get paid without your approval.
May I suggest that you begin with the EPA, the DoE (Energy and/or Education), and the IRS?
valerie: our “good friends” at the EPA are in the business of “saving the planet from humanity” (the quotes are intentional).
They’re doing the “work of God” (more intentional quotes). They couldn’t give a damn what effect their policies and regulations might have on the American public.
What’s he gonna do, pop off a few rounds at a stack of EPA regulations his staff flunky printed out for him?
@2 The leak at Hanford is blown way out of proportion. It really isn’t as bad as the media makes it out to be. The whole Hanford site would have been cleaned up already if the anti nukes and government would just let us do it. The vitrification plant would have been done if anti nukes and politicians would just get out of the damn way. And that place in Nevada would have been a great place to store the waste as it was something near 90% complete before Harry Reid ended it. I live within 20 miles of the Hanford site and wish everyday that we had 4 more reactors on the Hanford site, cheap electricity is a good thing.
“More people died in Ted Kennedy’s car than in all US commercial nuclear power plant accidents – combined.”
@15 Indeed it seems at times the EPA is more interested in killing a business than helping the environment….a printing company I managed was the victim of a surprise EPA inspection because a neighbor saw workings covered in a “white” powder….no one was covered in any powder a few guys had some corn starch(used in the print process to keep sheets of paper apart to allow ink to dry) on their clothing when they left without changing out of their work gear.
The EPA showed up with the local police and demanded access, which we would have granted without the presence of the SWAT team….they immediately locked on to the source of the mysterious white powder and in their “Ah Ha” moment noticed the boxes were marked industrial food grade corn starch…..completely safe for eating, harmless to humans…
The amount of paperwork I had to provide that proved the corn starch contained only corn starch was astonishing…
@9 OT, yep… unless he’s just a part of the smoke-and-mirrors act of this administration.
Most of the EPA pukes are about as competent as TSA pukes in an Airport, they’ve done little to build or earn anything in this life, and they use their power and authority to trash what others have worked to build.
@17 Nigel, Preach it, Brother!
@19 VOV, they showed up with a SWAT team!!?? How … interesting …
@23 I am exaggerating of course not SWAT but there were 6 LEOs to make sure we opened the doors to the EPA….every government official with proper ID was allowed access, OSHA, Labor Department, Tax Office…we had nothing to hide. We were operating a legal company within the legal framework of the state of Connecticut. Had the EPA shown up alone we would have let them in and allowed photographs….most of the police were obviously uncomfortable when they discovered the EPA had never called, had never requested access but just assumed we would be adversarial….when the police officers found out the deadly substance was food grade corn starch they were visibly amused. I suspect the EPA official was looking to bust a dangerous rogue operation, thus the theatrics involved…
Manchin was a good Governor for the state of WV. And he was the only Democrat that I voted for.
He sure went to hell though once his feet hit the floor of the Senate . I won’t vote for him again !
Vov – corn starch? Printers used to use clay and silk powder. Did those get too expensive? Wouldn’t surprise me.
Corn starch… EPA scared silly by corn starch. Oh, yeah, that is ripe for satire, especially if the corn starch gets wet in the rain. You know how quickly it aggregates. I use it in tiny amounts to make a clear gravy. Hmmm……
Elections have consequences. One of them is ‘months’ doesn’t mean what it used to mean, so the EPA can push through and enforce whatever it wants, whenever it wants, not ‘months’ and not in consultation with the states.
Another consequence is watching the folks who voted for Manchin swoon in orgiastic delights at the kabuki theater. IF Manchin were serious, he’d announce he’s switching parties, and see what happens.
Manchin’s so-called anger is pure theater to get the rubes looking right while Rockefeller’s replacement is elected from the left.
Let’s see here the O’s gone after Big Coal, and Big Oil. They don’t like fracking and are big into wind and solar yet they can’t seem to get any solar companies that work and when you talk wind farms in some areas many of the biggest “advoctes” (Hi there Bobby Kennedy Jr.!) don’t want wind farms in “their” back yards. Ever want to have fun with his fiolks mention the evil “N” word and no I do not mean:
NOVEMBER INDIA GOLF GOLF ECHO ROMEO
but rather
NOVEMBER UNIFORM CHARLIE LIMA ECHO ALFA ROMEO
That’s right folks Big Mr. O claims to be a supporter of nuclear but how come there hasn’t been a bigger push. The man is a theoretical ideologue who hasn’t worked a day in his life and wouldn’t know which end of of a shovel to use to dig a hole.
Manchin is just pissed because he sees this as a major nail in his coffin in the next election cycle. Regardless of his personal views on the matter his political survival depends on being seen as “on the people’s side” in his home state. Chuckie Schumer could get away with an anti gun position in New York, Old Joe can’t and survive. Now he has to come out swinging on the Big O’s environmental clean up plans.