EPA finally admits ethanol mandate is causing environmental damage

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American Thinker

By Thomas Lifson

The federal requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline on the theory that it will reduce the hypothetical global warming that hasn’t appeared yet has been a joke from the start. By adding a huge amount of demand for corn, it did push up prices for that commodity, and made vast swaths of the rural Midwest prosperous, though it has injured poor Mexicans and others who depend on corn for a substantial portion of their nutrition and driven up the rice of feed used for animals, raising meat prices.

The net energy balance of ethanol production – subtracting the amount of energy necessary to grow he corn, transport it to refineries, and then transport the ethanol to gasoline producers has been controversial. But owing to improvements in cultivation techniques (which have caused increased agricultural runoff – see below), the US Department of Agriculture estimated in 2015 that the balance is positive:

Ethanol made the transition from an energy sink, to a moderate net energy gain in the 1990s, and to a substantial net energy gain by 2008.

Unlike oil, which is produced in large amounts at the wellhead, corn production is widely dispersed, so pipelines can’t be used to transport it. Corn is trucked to the ethanol refinery, and then the ethanol is normally shipped in tank cars to oil refineries, where it is blended into gasoline. All of this transportation uses energy and imposes a cost from accidents, including derailments. Pipelines are more efficient and safer.

Now, the EPA has finally issued a new report, one that it is requited to issue every 3 years but which has been delayed by 4 years, and admits that the ethanol mandate comes at a considerable environmental cost. The Public News Service summarizes:

Federal law requires the EPA to assess the environmental impact of the fuel standard every three years, but the new report, issued in July, was four years overdue. According to David DeGennaro with the National Wildlife Federation, the report documents millions of acres of wildlife habitat lost to ethanol crop production, increased nutrient pollution in waterways and air emissions and side effects worse than the gasoline the ethanol is replacing.
“In finding that the Renewable Fuel Standard is having negative consequences to a whole suite of environmental indicators,” DeGennaro said, “the report is a red flag warning us that we need to reconsider the mandate’s scope and its focus on first-generation fuels made from food crops.”

Jaz Shaw points out at Hot Air:

Some of the negative effects aren’t specific to ethanol, such as the loss of wildlife habitat from expanded corn production. That would happen no matter what you were growing or building in formerly forested areas. But the increased runoff of nutrients and chemicals used in this type of farming are impacting water supplies far beyond anything caused by the occasional oil spill from a tanker car or pipeline.

The bigger surprise is the fact that ethanol production and combustion significantly increases the production of nitrous oxides (Nox). This combines with oxygen in the atmosphere when exposed to sunlight, producing ozone. Now, when we have ozone far up in the atmosphere it helps shield the planet from the sun’s natural radiation, which is a good thing. But ground-level ozone produces no such benefit and actually contributes to the formation of smog and leads to respiratory ailments for many people.

Those vehicles that feature cuddly images like a new leaf and righteously proclaim themselves to be “flex fuel vehicles” are actually aggravating some people’s respiratory problems, far more than gasoline powered vehicles.

Photo credit: Jeff Egnaczyk via Flickr

None of this speaks to the excessive costs that ethanol forces on drivers and auto manufacturers.

Alas, the mandate is so popular with corn farmers in Iowa, home of the first round of presidential nominations, that President Trump (and other politicians) that they not only maintain the mandate, President Trump just last week “told an audience in Iowa that he was “very close” to having EPA issue a waiver to the Clean Air Act to allow year-round sale of E-15.”

The madness continues.

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/epa_finally_admits_ethanol_mandate_is_causing_environmental_damage.html#ixzz5NOIzwCLQ
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A Simple But Urgent Reminder — and a suggestion

Free Republic

I wish to remind everyone, that before his election, Barack Obama said: “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded [as the military].”

And five days before his election, he added, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

Recall, too, that under Obama, the Federal government weaponized many federal agencies, including the IRS, VA, and yes, the EPA.

Not to mention the infamous rumors of the purchase of 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition by the Department of Homeland Security.

We need to make sure that these agencies are returned to peaceful status.

Can someone suggest to President Trump, that all the surplus equipment and ammunition (including hollow point rounds, which I believe are not used by the military) be auctioned off — or better yet, donated as a gesture of goodwill to Tea Party and Militiamen groups, as a sort of token apology for the Obama administration calling them “terrorists” ?

In the meantime, there are scads of leftists who have been calling for the death of certain high-ranking people who just won the election; coupled with riots, and with beatings of people who voted “the wrong way” all over the country. Why doesn’t that count as terrorism?

Incidentally, these riots are being funded by George Soros — who, by the way, was himself a Nazi collaborator.

Speaking of “Literally Hitler.”

It’s time to make government accountable again. And that starts with disarming agencies which have no legitimate need of stockpiles of weaponry.

EPA issues 50-state climate warning, flood, drought, ‘insect outbreaks’

Washington Examiner

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday unveiled its new online tool to help local officials deal with climate change, and it warns that no state in the nation is safe from disaster.

The “Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center,” or “ARC-X,” provides a map that break the country into eight regions and every single one comes with a threatening warning and long list of threats to human life.

“From floods and droughts to dangerous heat islands and other public health effects, communities are facing the very real impacts of climate change,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in unveiling the portal.

While the site isn’t a one-size-fits-all for local officials, it is a blanket warning from the federal government that the United States is on the verge of disaster, even including “human migration” from hot spots.

Here are the warning to each region:

State Dept. Withholds Records Of Clinton Ties To Lobbyist

Judicial Watch

Details surrounding the State Department’s expected approval of a controversial oil pipeline are being kept secret in an apparent effort to conceal impropriety created by the tight knit relationship between Hillary Clinton and the lobbyist pushing the multi billion-dollar project.The Secretary of State must approve the permit for the Canada-to-Texas pipeline, known as Keystone XL, which will span nearly 2,000 miles and transport around 1 million barrels of heavy crude oil daily across six states. Predicting opposition from environmental groups, the Canadian company behind the mega project hired one of Clinton’s national campaign directors (Paul Elliott) as its chief lobbyist.The tactic has been quite effective because Clinton indicated that she would approve Keystone XL long before the completion of a federally required environmental impact statement. Incredibly, her support hasn’t wavered in the aftermath of a preliminary Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that gives the pipeline project the lowest possible ranking.A coalition of environmental groups has joined forces to obtain details on the influence that the Clinton-Elliott relationship has had in the matter. Using federal public records laws the groups requested all correspondence between the politically-connected lobbyist and State Department officials considering the pipeline permit, including Clinton.In an apparent stall tactic, the agency denied the request claiming that it was “invalid” because it didn’t specify a time frame. The groups appealed and the State Department agreed to open a new request, noting that “unusual circumstances” may arise that could require “additional time to process” the new request. If the Obama Administration, which has promised unprecedented transparency, ever makes the information public, it probably won’t do so until the pipeline is half built.Last week the groups filed a lawsuit against Clinton and the State Department to obtain the records that could prove impropriety. In their complaint the nonprofits assert that the information they are seeking directly relates to whether the relationship between Elliott and Secretary Clinton might inappropriately influence the State Department’s decision to grant or deny the pipeline permit.The groups claim the transcontinental pipeline poses “massive environmental risks” and significant public health dangers that are being concealed from the public. One of the attorneys for the environmental coalition rightfully points out that refusing to provide records on the approval process “raises important questions of transparency and fairness.” Keep in mind that these are liberals who undoubtedly support this administration.

EPA Will Soon Seize Control of America’s Power Grid

Independent Sentinel

The current administration and the future Democrat administrations have promised to seize complete control of the energy industry to destroy fossil fuels. The Democrats have the EPA writing legislation to make it happen.

Barack Obama promised coal companies that if they wanted to build a coal-fired plant, they could but he’d bankrupt them.

He followed through by pushing Peabody Energy Corp. Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Walter Energy into Chapter 11.

He has his Democrat States Attorneys General investigating Peabody for not believing in his extreme climate change mantra. They plan to prosecute Exxon Mobil and a Libertarian think tank, American Enterprise Institute, for not abiding by their dictum. They say they will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. These companies are not only banned from having free speech, they are being compelled to speak as the government requires. Read the story at The Washington Post.

Robert Murray, CEO and owner of Murray Energy Corporation, said it was a war on fossil fuels which it is of course.

Team Obama’s War On NASCAR

SECURE FREEDOM MINUTE

According to President Obama, the greatest threat we face is climate change. So his administration has gone to war on, wait for it, NASCAR.

That’s right. The Environmental Protection Agency under the direction of its regulate-everything-in-sight administrator, Gina McCarthy, has reportedly decided that – in the interest of cutting gases that supposedly contribute to planetary warming – the conversion of street cars into race cars will have to be restricted.

It’s not clear whether making it harder to upgrade regular cars into racing machines will make an iota of difference in world surface temperatures. Even the UN acknowledges that far more dramatic regulations won’t have appreciable impact. What is a pretty safe bet, though, is that the EPA’s ruling will inflame the nation’s millions of NASCAR fans – and give them a reason to vote this fall.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/team-obamas-war-on-nascar?f=must_reads#ixzz45krqMSne
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

EPA Hopes to Ban Hobby Race Cars

 

Independent Sentinel

The government won’t be happy until everyone is as miserable as they are.

The Democrat Party is now the Democratic Socialist Party and Obama is the leader who helped make it all happen. His tight grip on every agency of unelected bureaucrats has given him and his minions dictatorial power. They will only get more and more controlling. The latest example is the EPA hammer coming down on race cars. That’s right race cars! Even though it will have no effect on the climate.

Watts Up With That reported that converting street cars into race cars is in their crosshairs.

The leftists won’t be happy until they ban everything that is enjoyable, especially if it’s something normal Americans enjoy.

The ban comes under the “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2.” It will affect sports cars, sedans and hatch-backs commonly converted strictly for use at the track.

It’s being done under the supposed auspices of the Clean Air Act though congress never intended this when the Act was passed. The EPA is abusing laws to deprive Americans of their freedoms.

As WattsUpWithThat reported,” this is truly insane, the amount of emissions produced by race cars on any given day is miniscule in comparison to the total amount of cars and emissions in the USA every day. They are making a ham-handed attempt at solving a non-existent problem.”

 

EPA Has Been Spending $Millions on Military Weaponry

Moonbattery

It could be argued that the most tyrannical branch of the federal leviathan is not Obama’s weaponized IRS, but the Environmental Protection Agency, which is staffed almost entirely by anti-capitalist, anti-American, and even anti-human zealots; which can seize your property or destroy whole industries on a whim; and which the junta that calls itself the Supreme Court has granted regulatory authority over literally all human activity, since everything we do generates harmless CO2. As we watch, the nature of the tyranny is inevitably evolving from soft to hard:

The Environmental Protection Agency has spent millions of dollars over the last decade on military-style weapons to arm its 200 “special agents” to fight environmental crime.

Among the weapons purchased are guns, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities, according to a new report by the watchdog group Open the Books.

They aren’t arming themselves to fight imaginary menaces like “climate change.” They are arming themselves to fight us.

The EPA estimates that each Special Agent costs taxpayers $216,000 per year in salary, travel, equipment, training and other expenses, according to the report.

That is only the beginning of the EPA’s unconstructive use of our money.

Among the findings were hundreds of millions of dollars on high-end office furnishings, sports equipment and “environmental justice” grants to raise awareness of global warming.

To “raise awareness” means to disseminate propaganda to prop up the debunked hoax.

The report also reveals that seven of 10 EPA employees make more than $100,000 a year and more than 12,000 of its 16,000 employees were given bonuses last year despite budget cuts. …

The agency also sent over $50 million since 2000 to international organizations, including groups in Mexico and China.

Work harder. Someone has to pay for all this.

Most of the EPA’s spending is pure waste, but the weaponry is sure to be put to heavy use if Democrats like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse manage to criminalize skepticism of the global warming hoax.

Not here to save the flourishing polar bears.

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See more at: http://moonbattery.com/?p=64017#sthash.VGU9ftBF.dpuf

Ho hum: another day, another toxic mine spill by the EPA

Hot Air

Is this something which is fairly new in the history of our government or was there just nobody paying attention up until now? This past week there was another spill of potentially dangerous waste water from a mine in Colorado. And once again it wasn’t miners or anyone in the private sector messing up the landscape… it was the increasingly inappropriately named Environmental Protection Agency. (Denver Post)

An EPA crew working at the Standard Mine above Crested Butte has triggered a spill of wastewater into a creek.

Crested Butte Mayor Aaron Huckstep and staffers for U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton said Thursday that about 2,000 gallons of wastewater spilled late Wednesday during work at the mine.

EPA officials could not confirm the incident, and National Response Center contractors in Washington D.C. did not yet have a report of the spill. An EPA congressional liaison officer could not be reached, and EPA public information officials said they were working on a statement.

 

Mark Levin: Time to Start Using the ‘I-Word’

PJ Media via Mark Levin Show

On his radio show yesterday, Mark ‘The Great One’ Levin said that Republicans “have to grow a set” and go after the imperial president, also known as President Barack Obama. He said this in response to a question from a listener who wondered whether it was time for Republicans to throw around the ‘I-word’: impeachment.