“Two other rules nearing completion would ease limits on pollution from power plants, a major energy industry goal for the past eight years that is strenuously opposed by Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups.
One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases. According to the EPA’s estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.
A related regulation would ease limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants near national parks.
A third rule would allow increased emissions from oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants with complex manufacturing operations.
These rules “will force Americans to choke on dirtier air for years to come, unless Congress or the new administration reverses these eleventh-hour abuses,” said lawyer John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
But Scott H. Segal, a Washington lawyer and chief spokesman for the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, said that “bringing common sense to the Clean Air Act is the best way to enhance energy efficiency and pollution control.” He said he is optimistic that the new rule will help keep citizens’ lawsuits from obstructing new technologies.
Jonathan Shradar, an EPA spokesman, said that he could not discuss specifics but added that “we strive to protect human health and the environment.” Any rule the agency completes, he said, “is more stringent than the previous one.”
Criminals and liars to the last, it would be comforting in its consistensy and constancy if it weren’t for all the dead people and the sick children…Enjoy your stock options gentlemen…
That spending deficit and the economic reverberations are being felt most strongly in North Carolina, where Hagan appears to have moved into a lead over Dole. The DSCC has spent more than $3.5 million on ads painting Dole as out of touch with average North Carolina voters, and even Republicans acknowledge that the attacks have taken their toll. Independent polling puts Hagan’s lead at three to eight points.
This would be so sweet, the woman should be in jail for her total incompetence at the Red Cross and the karmic echoes here are just outstanding…
John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.
McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.
A McCain aide confirmed the move and chalked it up to the state’s Democratic tilt and the resources Obama had put in place there.
“It was always a long shot for us to win,” said the aide.
McCain will now turn his attention to bolstering his defenses in Ohio and Florida while putting more resources into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and the second congressional district of Maine, where there is a sole electoral vote available.
Local campaigns seem to be heading for Virginia, ad money to Indiana. I still predict Michigan will end up 8-9 points in the blue…
The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announces: “Last week, the judge in CREW’s lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney approved our request to take the depositions of David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff.” The deposition was to be about record-preserving practices in the vice president’s office.
“On the eve of that deposition, Vice President Cheney and the other defendants filed an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
“Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy and defendants seek it here to have the D.C. Circuit intrude directly into the district court litigation by demanding that the district court judge vacate her discovery orders. The petition is based on a claim that the discovery authorized by the district court raises serious separation of powers concerns merely because the deponent is David Addington.”
Is Chimpy gonna have the stones to grant a blanket pardon to the entire Executive Branch? Wouldn’t that just leave him as the only target of a very long list of criminal investigations? Obama may be a pussy, but he’s not Gerald Ford pussy is he? (Sorry if that’s sounds sexist…)
The newest CBS News poll finds: “President Bush’s overall job approval rating has dropped five points from last week and is now the lowest of his presidency. Only 22% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing — a new low — while 70% of Americans disapprove — a new high. President Bush’s job approval rating has dropped 68 points from his all time high of 90% back in October, 2001. . . .
“Just 18% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling the economy, while 77% of Americans disapprove. Even a majority of Republicans disapprove of the President’s handling of this issue.”
I knew he could do it, Nixon was a criminal, but he wasn’t a stupid criminal…
