RUTHFULLY YOURS

Here’s a radical concept: federal agencies created and empowered by congressional statutes have to comply with those statutes — i.e., they have to obey federal law — in exercising their power.

It is a rudimentary concept, of course, but one with which the Obama administration has appeared only vaguely acquainted throughout its eight years. Now, a federal judge in West Virginia is providing remedial instruction for the Environmental Protection Agency, and in the process, is derailing the administration’s war on the coal industry.

As Powerline’s John Hinderaker explains, Judge Preston Bailey has directed the EPA to comply with a straightforward statute that unambiguously requires the agency to evaluate the effects on employment of its plans to enforce the Clean Air Act.

The case arises out of the EPA’s issuance of draconian regulations of air pollutants from coal and oil power plants. The libertarian Cato Institute recounts that the regs “provide far less than a penny in benefits for each of the nearly $10 billion in costs it imposes on the U.S. economy.” The Supreme Court, in Michigan v. EPA (2015), has already slapped the agency down due to the irrationality of this enormous-cost/negligible-benefit formula that is clearly designed to annihilate these industries. But, Cato explains, EPA is doubling down by trying to justify its $10 billion price tag with benefits outside those the statute permits it to count (which it euphemistically calls “co-benefits”).

The West Virginia case, Murray Energy Corporation v. EPA, is a successive instance of the defiant agency’s effort to ram through its regulations heedless of judicial rulings.

Murray Energy sued the EPA for, among other things, failing to comply with the statutory scheme it so oppressively enforces. In particular, the agency ignores the section of the Clean Air Act (section 7621 of Title 42, U.S. Code) that directs:

The Administrator [of EPA] shall conduct continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration or enforcement of the provision of this chapter and applicable implementation plans, including where appropriate, investigating threatened plant closures or reductions in employment allegedly resulting from such administration or enforcement.

I italicize “shall” because, in the law, shall (as opposed to, say, “may” or “should”) denotes something that must be done — it is not a suggestion.

Yet, the EPA does not even deign to take notice of it. In Murray Energy, there appears to be no question that the agency ignored the statute. In ruling for the company back in October, Judge Bailey ordered the EPA, within two weeks, to file a plan and schedule for how it would comply with the provision mandating Administrator Gina McCarthy to evaluate losses or shifts of employment that would occur if the EPA’s suffocating proposal went into effect.

The EPA’s response, in essence, was, “You’re kidding, right?”

Democrats must have concluded that climate change will defeat Donald Trump’s nominees, or perhaps the subject’s omnipresence at the confirmation hearings merely reflects their own political preoccupations, or their rich donors’. Whatever the reason, no job is too irrelevant for global warming to intrude.

Perhaps you think Mr. Trump named Mike Pompeo to the Central Intelligence Agency because of his spycraft expertise, or to defeat terror groups. Kamala Harris has other ideas. The new California Senator burned her question time on Thursday cross-examining Mr. Pompeo about “the scientific consensus” on global warming.

Citing NASA and “most of the leading scientific organizations world-wide,” Ms. Harris repeatedly asked about the human contribution to climate trends. “Do you have any reason to doubt NASA’s findings?” Mr. Pompeo replied that “I, frankly, as the director of CIA would prefer today not to get into the details of climate debate and science. It just seems—my role is going to be so different.”

When Ms. Harris kept pressing, Mr. Pompeo dryly replied, “I do know the agency’s role. Its role is to collect foreign intelligence.”

Meanwhile, in a nine-page questionnaire to Ben Carson, who is being sent to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Elizabeth Warren wanted to learn what the doctor thought about “C0 2 and other greenhouse gas emissions,” because extreme weather like flooding poses “a significant risk to public housing.”

“What other actions will you take to adapt to or prevent climate change while you are HUD Secretary?” Ms. Warren wondered. Maybe Dr. Carson’s tenure will be the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal.

At least Rex Tillerson would have some relation to climate policy at the State Department, such as the Paris carbon deal. But Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley wanted to know about the mountain pine beetle, an invasive forest species he claimed was expanding as a result of warming.

Mr. Tillerson called warming a “serious risk” and added that “the facts on the ground are indisputable in terms of what’s happening with drought, disease, uh, insects, all the things you cite,” though he also mentioned “uncertainty” about the scientific models and the economic cost of a response. That was too much for Mr. Merkley, who said he’d oppose the nomination.

The real meltdown is scheduled for next week, when Scott Pruitt will be grilled about leading the Environmental Protection Agency. Washington’s Patty Murray has called the Oklahoma Attorney General “a climate change denier,” New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen claimed the nomination was “a capitulation to polluters,” and Bernie Sanders said on CNN that “it is rather ironic that Mr. Trump has nominated somebody to head the EPA who doesn’t much believe in environmental protection.”

Mr. Pruitt has a scrappy legal background, including a constitutional challenge to the EPA’s abusive Clean Power Plan, but the real irony is that his environmental record, as traditionally understood, is strong. As AG, he negotiated a state compact with Arkansas to clean up phosphorous pollution in the Illinois River, lobbied for the federal 2016 Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, and sued poultry farms that didn’t control waste runoff as well as oil companies with leaking underground storage tanks.

That these achievements no longer count as environmental protection shows how far the progressive carbon panic has gone.

The U.S. government spent some $11.6 billion in 2014 on climate change research, technology, international assistance, and adaptation, according to the GAO (General Accountability Office). This useless research actually harms Americans by advancing the ridiculous notion that mankind is responsible for the so-called warming of the Earth. In fact, this idea is so foolish, given that the Earth has not warmed over the past approximately twenty years and we are now struggling today with record cold, that its proponents have changed their focus from global warming to extreme weather to climate change…always seeking the most effective way to scare people so as to assure a continued flow of pork.

It has not worked.

Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 survey respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.

Why not re-allocate these “low ROI” climate change funds to other, more desirable causes? Let’s review a list.

Border Wall. There is no reliable price tag on completing construction on the border wall, but the Trump team has estimated the cost at $8 billion. Recent congressional legislation pegged the number at $10 billion, and construction experts say it could be more than double that. Let’s assume they are correct and that the border wall will cost $20 billion and take ten years to finish. No worries…Mexico will be paying long before that.
A 355-Ship Navy. With President-Elect Trump requesting more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a saber-rattling China and obstreperous Iran. Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy’s 355-ship goal could require an additional $5 billion to $5.5 billion in annual spending in the Navy’s 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O’Rourke at the Congressional Research Service. In addition to helping assure national security and the safe passage of global commercial shipping, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who’d enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
Permanent Moon Settlement. NASA has estimated that building a permanent Moon base would cost $10 billion over the next five years. The many benefits to establishing a base on the Moon include providing refueling stations that would save billions from future space missions – especially to Mars, which are planned for the 2030s – plus providing unique opportunities for scientific research and the testing of new technologies.
Trip to Mars. Recently, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed a bipartisan bill authorizing $19.5 billion for NASA to continue work on a future Mars mission, as well as efforts to transport astronauts on commercial rockets to the International Space Station from the U.S., reports USA Today. According to the bill, NASA’s official goal will be to launch a crewed mission to Mars within the next 25 years. While it is unclear when this NASA funding bill will arrive on the floor of the full Senate, it is expected to pass once it does.

An environmental group handed out 10,000 free “endangered species condoms” at New Year’s Eve events and on college campuses nationwide to mark 2017 in a show of protest against President-elect Trump.

The Center for Biological Diversity said the condom giveaway was meant to highlight overpopulation amid fears of Trump policies on contraception along with fears of what could happen to protected wildlife species under his administration.

“Many women are already worrying about what life under President Trump is going to mean for access to affordable birth control. It’s a very real possibility that the Affordable Care Act will be gutted and contraception costs will skyrocket,” Leigh Moyer, the center’s population organizer, said in a statement. “Human population growth drives the majority of environmental problems, so making it harder to prevent unplanned pregnancy isn’t good news for women or for wildlife.”

The enviro-condoms project — using vegan, fair-trade condoms free of animal by-products — has been around since 2009, with contraceptives bearing phrases such as “wrap with care… save the polar bear” and “use a stopper… save the hopper.” The center says strong population growth in states such as Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Florida is linked to pressure on regional wildlife.

Today the group kicks off a 16-city “roadshow of resistance” against the Trump presidency called Earth2Trump, featuring “national and local speakers, live music and an opportunity to join a growing movement of resistance to all forms of oppression and all attacks on reproductive rights and our environment.”

One path of the roadshow starts in Seattle and cuts across Utah, Colorado and Illinois, while another roadshow starts in Oakland and winds through the southwest, Texas and Florida. Both plan to arrive in Washington in time for Inauguration Day, when myriad protests from various groups are planned in the capital.