Posted on 06/27/2011 3:23:26 PM PDT by EBH
U.S. EPA warned of the potential dire consequences of legislation being fast-tracked through the House that would give states final say on rules concerning water, wetlands and mountaintop-removal mining.
In a four-page legal analysis (pdf), EPA said the measure (H.R. 2018 (pdf)) sponsored by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and ranking member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) "would overturn almost 40 years of federal legislation by preventing EPA from protecting public health and water quality."
GOP House leaders expect to bring the bill to a floor vote this summer.
EPA said the Mica-Rahall bill would "significantly undermine" the agency's role of overseeing states' establishment and enforcement of water pollution limits and permits. It said the measure would hinder EPA's ability to intervene on behalf of downstream states harmed by pollution coming from a state upstream. And it said the bill would prevent EPA from protecting local communities from ill-conceived mountaintop-removal and similar projects allowed to go forward under Army Corps of Engineers-issued permits.
"This would fundamentally disrupt the balance established by the original [Clean Water Act] in 1972 -- a law that carefully constructed complementary roles for EPA, the Corps, and states," the analysis said.
...At its core, the bill would prevent EPA from reversing or overruling previously issued approval of state water quality limits, permitting authority, or permits to dredge and fill waterways or wetlands.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Be kinds to your friends in the swamp,
For a duck could be somebody’s mother..
(cue John Phillip Sousa and the piccolo segue)
I must say, I like the cut of your jib!
EPA staff people responsible for these rules are GHOULS and should be dragged bodily from their waffle bottomed chairs and tossed into the streets.
Lyrics:
Be kind to your web-footed friends
For that duck may be somebody’s mother,
She lives in a nest in a swamp
Where the weather is always damp.
You may think that this is the end,
Well it is, but to prove we’re all liars,
We’re going to sing it again,
Only this time we’ll sing a little higher.
[Repeat the song but sing it a bit higher. Continue for as many rounds as you can stand.]
Finally, end with:
You may think that this is the end....
Well you’re right!
Be kind to your old umbrella,
For some day it may be under the weather.
Be kind to your old pair of shoes,
And they’ll keep out the rain and mud.
Be kind to your fur-bearing friends,
For a skunk may be somebody’s brother.
Be kind to your friends with the stripes
Including raccoons and snipes.
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/song/song-1499.asp
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/bekindto.htm
The EPA has destroyed more jobs and killed more people than any other agency of government. And what, pray tell, is any constitutional authority for a REGULATORY AGENCY????? The regulations have the force of law, which means bullets, behind them, and NOBODY VOTED TO GIVE THEM THAT AUTHORITY! They are funded by massive amounts of tax dollars THAT NOBODY VOTED TO GIVE THEM!!!!
The EPA should be defunded and disbanded, yesterday.
I often think the liberals cut that which publicly hurts the most. In doing that, they create a guilty party for the next round of cuts.
Sort of like when they cut the police and fire department, before the cut the desk jockey. The other day I saw 2 trucks and 8 guys to install small 10x17 signs onto existing poles.
I almost wanted to pull over and “fire” or pink-slip seven of them as taxpayer waste.
The EPA is just an adjunct of environmental extremist groups, they’re worthless. States can manage their own water standards without these nutjob groups issuing dictates through the EPA.
Oh and thanks Nixon, you deserved Watergate for all the damage you did with your “pragmatism” .
Why in the heck does the EPA even have a say in this anyway?
What ever the EPA says should be considered irrelevant. They
should just shut up and do as they are told like the good
PUBLIC SERVANTS that they are. They can do what millions
of their fellow citizens are doing right now, shut up and
go find another job.
I guess we will just have to pass it before we can find out what’s in it.
The bill will decentralize bribery, bring back in spirit the independence of the states, and I won’t need motor oil to cook my Spotted Owl Surprise. Some budget decentralizing as well and soon... NO FDA
That was my thought as I read this...the EPA is an agency ...
By ‘balance’ they mean that EPA acts as a dictator, able to overrule any of the other agencies involved.
By ‘disrupt’ they mean that the bill actually puts EPA back in its place.
Hissy fits are always a good sign that the bill aint toothless.
Yeah, I too had a thought and it came out FDA instead of EPA, but what the heck, ditch ‘em both. We can get our pharmas in Canada which is cheaper. ... and the Dept of Education? Eliminate foreign aid and set a limit on managerial overhead in all agencies of the government, oh say 20% overhead instead of the current 40+%.
...bbbut that would ruin Obozo’s messing up the dollar.
Ya' know, this "dire consequences" stuff is really starting to get old fast.
Soon a politician running for office that has an agenda to PROMOTE dire consequences will look good.
So far there are none so don't get excited.
That “balance” means a centralized agency for the tree huggers to use in their suits. If this bill passes, the tree huggers would have to make their cases in each state.....much more expensive.
“Every state as an EPA, and the waterways between states already fall under USCG jurisdiction.”
I know several state EPA people. Regardless of their actual job task, they are ageing Greenpeace hippies. Only one has children, because they’re bad for the environment don’t-cha-know. At one of our car-club picnics, to which we had invited every club from three states, I wanted to invite the Marines to set up one of their tanks (they’re on flatbeds) and a recruiting booth. The EPA hippies were horrified! Their reaction was so extreme I thought they were joking.
They changed the planning meeting schedule and un-invited me. I had already stopped by to ask if the Marines would be interested. They officer I spoke with was a bit hesitant but said if they were specifically invited he’d ask for permission to come and set up. (The officer I was speaking too understood better than me what I was dealing with.) One of the EPA hippies called the Marine recruiting office to make certain they understood they weren’t welcome. When I found out I stopped by to apologize. He had the nicest grin on his face and shrugged, saying, “Well, in Tallahassee there’s a certain element that doesn’t like us.”
I’m fairly confident the hippie, communist anti-American, anti-military, anti-human philosophy goes all the way to the top of the state EPA. In short, if the state EPA has its way, we’d all be in horses and buggies. BTW, they all have classic cars from the sixties, but their other car is a hybrid or Subaru.
Good. States have a better idea as to how to manage their resources better than the feds. Who knows, the Great Lakes states may finally be able to do something then about the Asian carp threatening Lake Michigan. God knows the Obamination never will.
FDA...EPA...Education...
Throw the ATF into the mix. Let them regulate each other instead of the rest of us. Kind of like Godzilla vs. Mothra. Remember Education has shotguns and performs raids.
Yeah, it would be a huge waste of tax dollars, but ...
Or better yet why not send the TSA screeners to harrass (oops, I meant ‘protect’) these bureacrats in their offices.
...would give states final say on rules concerning water, wetlands and mountaintop-removal mining.There should be no federal minimum wage law, either. Cost of living is different in, say, Nebraska, than it is in NYC or LA, or Maui. Duh.
Regardless of their actual job task...Greenpeace hippies.
LOL So true. In an official business capacity, I had to attend EPA functions. EPA is also where the tattooed, Halloweenish dressed twenty somethings, with multi-color hair, multiple pierced of anything visible that could be pierced become government employees.
When these EPA employees say something; nobody hears anything above their personal background noise. And why EPA regulates.
Cheers,
OLA
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