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From Americanthinker.com
The EPA’s Mess with Texas
By Ben Voth
January 30, 2011
As part of Obama’s new political initiative to bypass a Congress that rejected his political leadership in 2009 and 2010, he has announced executive orders to allow the Federal government to restrict economic activity to fit legislative goals he apparently no longer believes he can win in political debate. One of the most important new targets in this new post-Congressional agenda is Texas. The EPA is messing with Texas in ways that threaten to disrupt the biggest jobs producer in the United States. [Emphasis added]
The EPA is moving to restrict Texas’ ability to continue as the largest production base for natural gas in the nation. As the largest consumer and producer of natural gas, Texas provides an important alternative in energy production to the conventional fossil fuels of coal and oil Those fuels have fallen into dire regulatory restrictions that Vice President Biden suggested should eventually lead to the end of coal production in the United States. Natural gas has emerged as an important transitional fuel to the green economy. Despite this, the Obama administration is moving to limit this component of Texas’ economic boom.
A secret weapon in the battle over Texas is EPA regulator Dr. Al Armendariz. Armendariz was tapped by the Obama administration to limit natural gas production in Texas. In his seminal article on natural gas production from the Barnett shale in North Texas, Armendariz argues that gas production contributes more to global warming than automotive traffic in Dallas:
“For comparison, 2009 emission inventories recently used by state and federal regulators estimated smog- forming emissions from all airports in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area to be 16 tpd. In addition, these same inventories had emission estimates for on-road motor vehicles (cars, trucks, etc.) in the 9- county Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area of 273 tpd. The portion of on-road motor vehicle emissions from the 5-counties in the D-FW metropolitan area with significant oil and gas production was 121 tpd, indicating that the oil and gas sector likely has greater emissions than motor vehicles in these counties.”
The research relies on “personal conversations” Armendariz had with natural gas producers in the Dallas area. This is not generally acceptable standard for research but it is laying the foundation for intensely regulating the last major fossil fuel that Texas and the United States can turn to in the 21st century. The promotion of the activist/ expert to the office of EPA bodes ill for energy use in the United States. The EPA plans to designate Dallas air as “serious” with regard to ozone pollution based on 1997 standards. Though Dallas has economically boomed and had a population increase of more than 25% since 1997, the city has reduced ozone levels from 102 parts per billion to 86 parts per billion. This impressive feat draws no acceptance from the EPA and the 2 ppb will be enough to designate Dallas as having some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Dallas air is getting cleaner and will likely soon meet the 1997 standard despite rapid economic growth, but the EPA is eager to dIM the star of Lone Star success.
The broader war on CO2 is also important. The potential ramifications for natural gas producers are huge since CO2 regulation is authorized by a 2007 Supreme Court decision that allows the EPA to regulate such emissions.
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NOW ADD WHAT IS HAPPENING CURRENTLY in the MIDDLE EAST PLUS PAST and PRESENT FOREIGN POLICY…….
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**ALL CREDIT TO Steven McCann for this article****
Carter Redux?
January 29, 2011
By Steven McCann
For those who lived through the 1979 Iran revolution and the abandonment of the Shah of Iran by the Carter administration, there is a tangible sense of foreboding as to what form the outcome of the current upheaval in Egypt will take.
Like Carter, Obama has made overtures to the Islamists. 1n 1978 Jimmy Carter was on the side of “human rights” and eagerly embraced Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter’s UN Ambassador Andrew Young went so far as to call him “some kind of saint”.
It now turns out that in 2009, the Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum reported that President Obama secretly met with representatives of the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas and Al Qaeda ally that has been barred by the US and put on the terror watch list by the Bush administration. By doing so and choosing Egypt as the locale for his Muslim outreach speech, in which he never once used the words “terrorism”, “terrorist” or “war on terror,” the question must be asked: Did or does the Obama administration realize the difference between freedom-based revolutions (which do not include jihadist elements) and violent overthrows orchestrated by the same jihadists. Secretly meeting with the jihadist elements can only embolden them. [Emphasis added]
There are numerous reports out of Cairo that the islamist element has not only helped foment this uprising but is now taking control of it.
As an editorial at the Investor’s Business Daily points out:
Bet the President didn’t think he was planting the seeds of today’s protests in Egypt. But what does he expect when he goes to a country in a decades-long police-enforced state of emergency, with tens of thousands of political prisoners, and announces that “you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion.”
He may have awakened a sleeping giant. Too bad the Iranian people didn’t receive the same favor a year and a half ago when they were protesting in the streets against a regime that makes Egypt look Jeffersonian by comparison.
Further:
Even so, should Mubarak fall, there is a real danger of the Islamic Brotherhood imperiling this US ally. Barack Obama sure picked a foolish place to give a community organizing speech.
There is no question that Mubarak ran a quasi police state; but there were ways to force democratization on Egypt over the years without making overtures to radical elements and giving them an effective wink and a nod.
The world cannot afford another Iran on the shores of the Mediterranean thus in control of the Suez canal and completing an encirclement of Israel. That will almost guarantee a Middle East War.
LINK
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EPA strangleholds via Executive Order of Obama.
Middle East uprising in several countries simultaneously.
Can you guess what that is going to do to gasoline/oil prices?
Remember oil/gas is used in almost all stages of food production in America. Even most plastic bags holding food are made from petroleum.
Beware America….we may be in for a VERY BUMPY RIDE.
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We are not racists.
We are not violent.
We are just no longer silent.
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