The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States is one of the largest and most draconian governmental organizations on the planet. Under Obama, it has also become one of the most powerful. The ability to regulate CO2 as a pollutant, being one of the chief new results of Obama’s already horrific presidency. The problem with the EPA is that those in charge GAIN power by adding regulation. Their funding is directly related to the ability to say NO to any citizen for whatever reason. If you want to build a house, and the EPA has declared some feature of your property as protected, they get to say NO. They also then need to monitor that “feature” of your property which requires funding and resources.
We have seen numerous new regulations from the government in recent years, since America already had massive environmental regulations, these new regulations seem to carry little or no benefit whatsoever, unless you are an EPA employee or better yet – boss. A summary of some of the regulations and impacts is listed here. In particular many of these regulations are allegedly designed to prevent emission of CO2, however, they simply add costs to the energy supply chain. In fact, every single action the Obama admistration has taken has done nothing but add cost to business. There has been not one single regulatory improvement for business or the quality of life put into law since he took office. It is a credit to capitalism that the economy hasn’t collapsed a second time under his anti-common sense rule.
Yet our new EPA overlord Gina McCarthy, has set the tone for Obama’s second term of economic destruction with the following :
McCarthy signaled Tuesday that she was ready for the fight, saying that the agency would continue issuing new rules, regardless of claims by Republicans and industry groups that under Obama the EPA has been the most aggressive and overreaching since it was formed more than 40 years ago.
“Can we stop talking about environmental regulations killing jobs? Please, at least for today,” said McCarthy, referring to one of the favorite talking points of Republicans and industry groups.
As is the norm for the Obama talking heads, reality is simply ignored in favor of blatantly false statements which the media repeats as though they are reasonable and even factual.
“McCarthy said she planned to continue issuing new rules and felt President Barack Obama’s new Climate Action Plan could “fuel the complementary goals of turning America into a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.”
The educated among us know that government burden for the simple sake of burden cannot and will not create jobs. Yes it does create the need for solutions to work around the government in order to feed ourselves, but that is a cost, not a benefit. Unnecessary regulations do not create wealth, they create POVERTY, reduce personal freedom and individual power while increasing the wealth, power and freedom of those in charge. The same three known results of every socialist party on the planet. Yet add them we do, because the media sings JOBS, and that government knows best. All the while, the fools of us who are allowed to vote move from one issue to the next, rarely noticing the increasing rate of enslavement they experience, while the truly wealthy don’t care.
We know that more is coming, because the evil people in charge have told us so:
“Climate change will not be resolved overnight,” she added. “But it will be engaged over the next three years – that I can promise you.”
Global warming as it is being sold is an exaggerated and therefore fake problem, with real solutions being used to enact a political agenda. An immoral agenda to take your freedom and transfer it to those who would carry the party banner highest and shout its wonders the loudest. As we watch, climate scientists produce horrifically bad quality work, yet still gain international fame and bloated salaries and awards for their unqalified support of the party banner. Do you ever wonder when the public will notice that their own wealth has decreased on average, while government employees roll in the cash? Will you be surprised in 20 years when CO2 emissions are doubled and warming still hasn’t caused any problems.
I wonder, but I hold little hope that people are smart enough to figure out the answer – and that is right where Obama wants us.
the Air Vent 
Now, Jeff. Richard Nixon’s signature organization, the EPA, has indeed been used by other presidents to get around a recalcitrant legislature. In that, my hero Barack Obama is no different.
If there is a difference, it is that he said that this is what he would do. He campaigned on it. He won an election. Now he’s doing what he said he would do. Elections have consequences and all that…
Converting our electrical generation base from coal to natural gas is dramatic, but not incredibly so. It will strand some investments unfairly. I consider that a pity and wish it hadn’t happened.
But Obama is not the first to raise CAFE standards and he won’t be the last. He is not responsible for the unholy alliance between Cargill, ADM and their lobbyists and the elected yokels (sadly, mostly Democratic) in D.C.
Jeff, you have a case to make but you’re not making it because you’re too focused on Obama. He’s a middle of the road pragmatic Democrat that had to sound some progressive themes to get elected. You should focus on issues, not personalities. Obama will be gone in 3 years. The country and its assorted problems will remain.
Obama’s prints are all over the actions of government. More so than any previous president. I cannot see anything positive from the extreme abuses of power in his administration, and fail to see even a single positive regulatory change brought about by his government. Is there one?
Calling him “middle of the road” or “pragmatic” may be a good way to sell him to people but, as intended, it fails to recognize the extremeness of the policies that have been enacted. America has been successful in the past for a reason and it was not an all-powerful nanny state which brought it about.
Tom, you accuse Jeff of obsessing about Obama, yet you refer to him as your “hero”. Some hero –
$6 trillion in new national debt under Obama…after he promised to decrease the deficit.
• Obamacare — A massive and incredibly destructive bill which dramatically increases the federal government’s control over our personal lives…which neither Obama nor a single Democrat even read before passing, and which will likely bankrupt the nation. Even more important, it will signal the death of America’s robust biotech industry, because of the death panels need to control costs and access.
•Chief VC. Billions of taxpayer dollars gambled on “green” companies like Solyndra, NextEra, Light Squared, Ener1, Solar Trust and many others — all of which went bankrupt.
• An intentional refusal to enforce federal immigration laws.
• Unemployment at or above 8% for almost his entire term in office (which was actually closer to 15% actual unemployment).
• Operation Fast & Furious — a government-sponsored illegal gun-running scheme designed to purposely go awry so as to induce public outcry for gun control. One Brian Terry dead.
• Spent 20 years listening to a racist anti-American pastor (Rev. Jeremiah Wright), whom Obama described as a mentor. On March 18, 2008, Obama gave a speech in which he said “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother” and “[Wright’s church, Trinity United] embodies the black community in its entirety.” Now Obama tries to pretend that Jeremiah Wright doesn’t exist, and that his extremist anti-white philosophy didn’t influence Obama’s worldview.
• 47million Americans dependent on food stamps (now over 15% of the nation’s population).
• Before he entered politics, Obama worked as a lawyer suing banks in landmark cases, forcing them to give home loans to unqualified minority borrowers — a practice now understood as one of the primary initial causes of the eventual housing bubble and market collapse.
• Handed out over 1,200 waivers to politically connected donors exempting them from the onerous requirements of Obamacare.
• Greatly expanding the number of unaccountable “czars,” which essentially amounts to unilaterally adding new federal departments with no congressional oversight — leading to a true “bureaucracy” in the original sense (rule by unelected bureaucrats). Cass Sunstein – the “Nudge Master”.
• Using taxpayer dollars to bail out the private pension funds of autoworkers’ unions at GM & Chrysler, screwed the bondholders – unprecedented in American history.
• Illegally ending the welfare-to-work requirements passed by Congress.
• Doling out $800 billion in stimulus cash for “shovel-ready” jobs that didn’t exist — the money just evaporated with no measurable economic benefit. Now that $800 billion is baselined .
• Alienating and isolating Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East.
• Apologizing to Islamists and terrorists for offending them.
• Under Obama’s watch, for the first time in history America’s credit rating was downgraded, due to his poor economic policies.
• Stopped American oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing other nations with worse environmental records to drill instead — thereby managing to both weaken our economy and damage the environment simultaneously.
• Proposed in 2008 to intentionally bankrupt the coal industry — and now lies to voters and workers in coal-producing regions about his true intent.
• Pretends to be concerned about skyrocketing energy prices, when in fact he vowed to increase them on purpose (so as to make alternative energy schemes more competitive.)
• In a primary debate against Hillary Clinton in 2008, Obama said he would never force people to buy health insurance, since those without it couldn’t afford to buy it. Less than two years later, he rammed through Obamacare, which does indeed force people to buy health insurance.
• During the 2008 campaign, Obama repeatedly promised that if he was elected “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” This promise was broken over and over again once he was elected.
• In 2008 Obama vowed if elected to increase security along the U.S.-Mexican border — and then in 2010 stopped construction of a “virtual fence” on the border and re-routed money earmarked for border security to other projects.
• Cash for Clunkers, which doled out taxpayer money to anyone who wanted to replace their old cars, but which mostly only ended up subsidizing the purchase of foreign-made cars by people who could have afforded them on their own anyway; meanwhile, the traded-in cars were all destroyed, creating a shortage and thereby increasing the cost of used cars, hurting the pocketbooks of poor people.
• Violated the U.S. Constitution by authorizing assassinations and drone strikes to kill American citizens abroad — without due process.
• Was caught on a “hot mike” promising the President of Russia that he would cave in to their demands for a weaker missile shield — after he was re-elected and no longer had to keep up the pretense that he sought to defend America.
• Soon after taking office, Obama rescinded the “Mexico City Policy,” which previously had banned NGOs which are supported by American taxpayer funds from using those funds to perform abortions in foreign countries.
• Appointed Van Jones, a former avowed communist who supported a “9/11 Truth” petition, to be “Green Jobs Czar.”
• Appointed Anita Dunn, who said Chairman Mao was her “favorite philosopher,” to be White House Communications Director.
• Appointed John Holdren, who previously entertained the notion of forced mass sterilization to stop overpopulation, to be Science Czar.
• Appointed Steven Chu, who openly advocated an artificial increase in gasoline prices to $10/gallon (and similar increases in other energy prices) to be Secretary of Energy.
• Appointed Kevin Jennings, who led a group that promoted X-rated “sex-positive” textbooks for 13-year-olds, instructed teenagers at a conference how to perform “fisting” (anal penetration by fists), who refused to report instances of statutory rape, and who expressed admiration for a member of NAMBLA, to be America’s “Safe School’s Czar.”
• When states voted to enforce the federal immigration laws which the federal government refused to enforced, Obama sued to stop them.
• Blocked continued construction of the Keystone Pipeline, thereby intentionally reducing energy resources for the US and forcing Canada to sell more of its oil to China.
• Repeatedly changed his position on gay marriage over the years, depending on what was politically expedient at the moment and which intended audience he was addressing.
• Before he was president, Obama staunchly opposed raising the national debt limit — but once elected, he insisted that it be raised.
• When giving a 2009 speech in France that he hoped and assumed Americans would never hear, he described the United States as “arrogant” and “dismissive.”
• When states tied to stop election fraud with voter ID laws, Obama sued to prevent them from doing so.
• Instructed Attorney General Eric Holder to stonewall any investigation into the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panthers.
• Promised in 2008 that once elected he would officially recognize the Armenian Genocide; but to this date he has still failed to do so, caving in to threats and pressure from Turkey.
• Vowed to end the influence of lobbyists in Washington, but under Obama’s watch their influence has only increased.
• When he was first running for President, Obama promised, “I will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” Needless to say, he has broken that promise with almost every bill he has signed since.
• Aided and abetted the “Arab Spring” which deposed existing secular governments across North Africa, leading to a regional power vacuum which was filled by Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other hardline Islamists.
• Refused to provide assistance or support the earlier secular Iranian democracy uprising, allowing them to be crushed by the Islamic fundamentalist Iranian regime.
• In his first months in office, Obama bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia, the president of China, the Emperor of Japan, and President of Mexico, among others.
• Ordered NASA to make one of its top priorities not space exploration or scientific research but “Muslim outreach.”
• Used Obamacare as a pretext to greatly increase the size and power of the IRS (which was given 20,000 new agents and additional mandates to penalize taxpayers for noncompliance).
• Used the IRS to harass conservative businesses.
• In the GM bailout, he illegally shortchanged investors who according to bankruptcy laws were first in line to be recompensed; instead, he gave their share to the unions.
• Shut down oil drilling in the US, but then turned around and lent $2 billion to Brazil to support their government-controlled oil-drilling effort — and then promised the US would become one of Brazil’s biggest oil customers.
• Sued Boeing in an effort to control where businesses could locate, kowtow to the unions, and block the creation of 1,000 jobs in South Carolina, a right-to-work (i.e. no forced unionization) state.
• Adopted a longstanding Socialist political slogan, “Forward!”, as his 2012 campaign motto.
• Sent insulting form letters to the families of dead SEALs.
• Neither disavowed nor distanced himself from anti-Romney campaign ads which threatened or implied violence against Republicans.
• Shortly after the eruption of anti-American violence in North Africa, Obama went to Las Vegas to do his debate preparation in a hotel…with a romanticized North Africa theme.
• Union boss and far-left activist Andy Stern has visited Obama in the White House at least 53 times, at last count — greater access than any other private citizen.
• Hosted at the White House many Islamist members of groups associated with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.
• Sponsored performances by and attended fundraisers with radical rappers like Michael Franti and Common, both of whose lyrics have in some cases been anti-police, anti-white, and anti-America.
• Hired Timothy Geithner, who is documented as cheating on his own personal taxes, to be Secretary of the Treasury.
• Told Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher that it was good to “spread the wealth around.”
• Told small business owners nationwide in a 2012 speech that “you didn’t build that” — implying that they should not claim credit for their own success, since taxpayers (i.e. themselves and other business owners) had funded the national infrastructure.
• Insulted the British people by rudely returning to them a bust of Churchill which previously had been a ceremonial gift on display at the White House; when later confronted on this inexplicable action, he lied about it.
• Canceled plans to complete a missile defense shield in Poland, a move which was highly praised by Russia and Iran — the very nations whose missile threats would have been neutralized if the shield had been completed.
• By loudly publicizing (for personal political gain) the identity of exact SEAL teams who had killed Osama bin Laden, Obama made them a target for reprisals by Islamists; a short time later 22 SEALS were shot down and killed in Afghanistan, their worst loss of life ever.
• Established an extra-Constitutional top secret “kill list” of people (including Americans) Obama claims the right to kill on sight, and then bragged about it publicly.
• Established the “Truth Team” program which encouraged citizens to report to the government any friends or relatives they hear repeating “lies” about Obama.
• Twisted the arms of defense contractors to not issue layoff notices in early November, so as to avoid causing bad news for Obama right before the election — even though federal law (the “WARN Act”) requires such notices.
• After the attacks on American interests in North Africa on September 11, 2012, Obama gave a speech to the U.N. and declared “The future must not belong to those who slander The Prophet of Islam” — transferring the blame from the attackers onto the makers of a film trailer that supposedly “offended” the Islamists.
• Repeatedly snubbed and got into public tiffs with Benjamin Netanyahu, who as the leader of Israel is supposed to be Obama’s closest colleague in international affairs.
• On May 19, 2011, Obama told Israel they must return to the 1967 borders as a pre-condition for continuing talks with the Palestinians — even though the status of the borders was the main issue the talks were supposed to address.
• Encouraged politically biased hiring practices in the Justice Department.
• Attempted to force returning veterans to pay huge increases for their health coverage…as a way to generate more funding for his Obamacare provisions.
• In June of 2011, he anointed his own underage daughters as “senior staff members” so that their vacation to Africa would be paid for with taxpayer money.
• Interviews with high school classmates revealed that Obama was a heavy and frequent user of marijuana in his teenage years (not to mention his self-admitted cocaine use in college).
• Played over 100 rounds of golf during his first three years in office, meaning that he was on the links close to 10% of the days he has been president.
• Voted to allow partial-birth abortions not just once but three times in a row as an Illinois state senator.
• The pastor whom Obama selected to give the national benediction at his 2009 inauguration recently declared that “all white people are going to Hell.”
Nice list Rob. It wasn’t just conservative businesses attacked by the IRS. There is considerable evidence that individuals as well as tax-exempt organizations were attacked as well. The lack of media response to the situation was shocking. There has been an obvious and extensive coverup of this situation.
I also notice the list doesn’t mention the death of a Benghazi ambassador or the piles of evidence that the Obama administration has been actively blocking access to investigate the truth.
Obama is not a good president, but worse than that, he is not even a good man.
” the death of a Benghazi ambassador or the piles of evidence that the Obama administration has been actively blocking access to investigate the truth.”
Wouldn’t that be the normal actions of a “Pragmatic, middle of the road ” kind of guy?
” He’s a middle of the road pragmatic Democrat”
Priceless !!!!
I find your first paragraph very troubling, especially the comment on “getting around a recalcitrant legislature.” The context this is written in indicates the use of picking and choosing laws and regulations for enforcement for purely political and ideological is something we should not only expect but freely accept.
Sadly it is fair to say we should expect this, but I believe we should not accept it. If the use of government departments and agencies should be only for the executive office, why do we need a legislature?
I enjoy reading Jeff’s opinions as he runs a company and meets payrolls that benefit many households. He can only accomplish this by the creation of wealth through the sales of good and services. The limiting factors he faces in doing this are the abilities of himself and those around him, the general macro economic environment, and the specific regulations that he is forced to comply with. If he is focused on the current administration it may be due to it encumbering his ability to create wealth much more so than the prior ones.
Recently Jeff mentioned that his company relocated. I think it would be an enlightening post as to the reasons why this became necessary and what the factors were in deciding where the new “home” would be.
I have spent my entire life in the non-profit world outside the corruptive influence of government contracts and funding. It is business people and those they employ that are the ultimate source of our funding.
Thomas Fuller certainly has his blinkers firmly in place. If he can’t see that everything Obama has done (and many things that George Bush the younger did) drove jobs offshore he clearly has no business experience. Probably he works in academia or government if he works at all.
I won’t be drawn into a political discussion as it makes little difference whether Dimocrats or Repugnants are in charge. Nothing will change as long as the government can keep increasing the national debt. When the borrowed money runs out we be a “Super Power” version of Greece with blood in the streets.
Getting back to the science, Jeff said:
“Will you be surprised in 20 years when CO2 emissions are doubled and warming still hasn’t caused any problems.”
The IPCC scenario corresponding to high growth is SRES A1F1:
http://www.ipcc-data.org/sres/ddc_sres_emissions.html
With this scenario when does the IPCC expect the CO2 concentration to reach 560 ppm which is double the assumed “Pre-industrial” value of 280 ppm?
According to Jeff that would be 2033 (20 years from now) while the IPCC seems to be predicting 2048 or later.
Perhaps 20 years was too progressive 😉
It does matter who is in power though, it affects the time until we get to the destination.
Why do we have to choose between two parties hell bent on driving us off the debt cliff?
Darn shame that nobody can get elected by promising to balance the budget let alone paying down the debt.
Term limits
Because plurality voting systems favor two party rule.
Mark
Regretfully some of us had our “blinkers firmly in place” for sixty-four years, 24 Oct 1945 – 17 Nov 2009, until Climategate emails and documents confirmed the validity of the warning George Orwell started writing to the public in 1946:
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
Here’s the rest of the story, as reconstructed from the:
1. Writings of Paul K. Kuroda, Fred Hoyle, David Snell, Robert Jungk & George Orwell about 1945-46 and
2. Post-1945 experimental data and observations that show the Sun’s core is a pulsar; The Sun’s mantle is Iron (Fe); The Sun generates and discards Hydrogen (H), just like other ordinary stars.
Click to access Creator_Destroyer_Sustainer_of_Life.pdf
With kind regards,
– Oliver K. Manuel
Former NASA Principal
Investigator for Apollo
Gina McCarthy’s bio says it all.
From Wiki: Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1976. In 1981 she received a joint Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy from Tufts University.
I call those “indoctrination” degrees. Plus, I’ll be willing to bet you that this woman doesn’t even know the most basic science of the supposed CAGW (or anything else).
….and the punishment goes on………………… (and on, and on……………………)
Unfortunately, indoctrination has become education.
That practice will ultimately destroy mankind if it continues.
“Climate change will not be resolved overnight,” she added. “But it will be engaged over the next three years – that I can promise you.”
I see a war with China and India in our future. As well as Europe. CO2 production in the USA is declining. In all other places increasing.
The only way to “resolve climate change over the next three years” willone to admit that our government and their scientiific advisors have been purposely misrepresenting the Sun for the past sixty-eight years (2013 – 1945 = 68 yrs).
will be to