New congress set to cut EPA funding

Environmental Protection Agency moves to institute Cap n’ Trade over the wishes of congress will have budgets slashed for abuse of power 

DALLAS (Jan. 3, 2011) – Scores of elected officials say the EPA is abusing its power and plan to greatly limit its scope very soon.  EPA posting the first greenhouse gas standards under the Clean Air Act, and without congressional approval, has widely angered both states and lawmakers. 

The practice of capping co2 emissions from power plants has proved costly in other countries by hiking electric rates.  Known as Cap n’ Trade, it has been consistently rejected by the US, partly because of the damage it can do to the already weak economy here.  “The long term outlook is, we’ve got to come to some understanding with the EPA about what their rights and duties are under the Clean Air Act and I don’t  think that this is one of them,” said US representative  Michael Burgess, (R) 26th district of Texas. 

Burgess said he and other lawmakers will work to amend the Clean Air Act in the long run, but “its really the ability to control funding that the House of Representatives has, and that is going to be our main tool to use.”  Burgess was recorded by phone from his home while on holiday break from congress and aired today on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason. 

On the program Burgess can be heard to say “come March the government runs out of money.  It is that new spending bill where many of these things that are happening at the federal agency level outside the legislative branch, this is where they can be controlled because the money will not be there to … enact the carbon endangerment findings that the EPA is willing to put forward.”  Burgess sits on the powerful joint Energy & Commerce Committee.  It is on that sub-committee and the Oversight Investigations sub-committee where EPA is regulated.

The EPA is under siege from the states also, right now about 20 of them are suing.  Texas is particularly angry because the EPA has taken the additional step of seizing that state's authority to issue permits for power plants.  On the same radio program Lucy Nashed, a spokesman for the Texas governor’s office, read a prepared statement that said the EPA move is “misguided” and implements “unnecessary, burdensome mandates” that threatens “hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs” and imposes “increased living costs on Texas families.”

Also appearing on the program by phone from his office in New York was Luke Popovich, of the National Mining Association, who said Coal provides nearly half the electricity in the US and confirmed the EPA move will cause “energy costs to go up.”  Popovich can be heard to say the NMA will work closely with the new congress to curtail EPA abuses.  The broadcast originates in Dallas, Texas, and can now be heard in complete detail at the website, archived for its world audience.

Those who believe there is a technology solution to our environmental energy challenges will meet at the site of the recent oil spill; in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 14 -15 at the 2011 IEEE Green Technology Conference, produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE-USA, IEEE Region 5, and the IEEE Baton Rouge Section.  The public is urged to attend by registering at the website.