Corbett, other GOP governors, want emissions proposals withdrawn

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 10-12-11 | Don Hopey

[Lazlo in PA]

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is one of 11 Republican governors who have signed a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to withdraw proposed rules that would reduce toxic pollutant emissions from coal-burning power plants.

In their letter Oct. 7, the governors claim long-delayed rules limiting emissions of mercury and other toxics -- originally mandated in the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 -- would cost $11 billion annually, risk millions of jobs, hurt electric power reliability and result in only marginal air quality improvements.

"Any new rule must reflect information on how it will impact the economy and include a full and complete study of reliability that takes into account the additional regulatory hurdles EPA is considering placing before the power sector," the governors wrote.

[Lazlo in PA]

Good to see that Corbett and others are pressing ahead trying to roll back these job killing regulations. Probably won't do a thing, but it does remind voters about what the Regime is doing to them.

[raisincane]

I hope they make a lot of noise about these economy killing regulations and wake their citizens up to the damning EPA!

[GraceG]

Why don’t the states just counter the federal regs with state laws passed by a majority of the state legislature and signed by the governor and when the feds object take it all the way to the SCOTUS.

[GraceG]

How about states passing a law to authorize any county sheriff to kick any federal agent out of their county at their whim or the whim of a city council?

[Safetgiver]

Gotta love Corbett, so far.

[alloysteel]

The EPA isn’t even TRYING to go into the secondary, and trace, pollutants in coal-burning stack emissions, they have turned all their cannons on reduction and near-total elimination of CARBON DIOXIDE. They have used some really junk science in an attempt to “prove” CO2 is a pollutant, when that runs directly counter to any “balance of nature” ecology. There cannot be anything like “excess” carbon dioxide while there is sunlight and growing green plants converting the CO2 and water into free oxygen and various forms of carbohydrates.

Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” only in the sense that within a greenhouse, carbon dioxide is what FEEDS the growth of plants. If plants do not have enough CO2 to efficiently convert it into carbohydrates and oxygen, the metabolism of the plant reverses until there IS enough available to resume the process. Check with a knowledgeable biology professional about this phenomenon.

Now, if you have to worry about a “greenhouse gas”, concentrate your attention on water vapor. Water vapor is the great regulator of atmospheric temperatures, through a most amazing capability to require ENORMOUS amounts of heat energy from the solid form (ice) through the range of liquid water from just above freezing to the point of vaporization (water vapor), all of which takes up tremendous smounts of heat, and releases that heat as the water molecules cool. The takeup of the heat is at the interface of atmosphere and either liquid water or ice, and the release of the heat is in a high cloud cover, where the excess heat is radiated off to space during the hours the face of the earth is turned away from the sun, forming ice crystals, which then descend, again taking up heat and becoming water (rain) or cooled vapor, clouds, or at ground surface, fog.

Carbon dioxide absorbs heat from all the same sources that water does, but behaves differently. Carbon dioxide only exists as a gas at temperatures and pressures that are compatible with life. Few people have ever even SEEN liquid CO2 (a colorless liquid, by the way) as it evaporates so rapidly upon release of pressure, it instantly cools so much it forms “dry ice”, an intensely cold substance that is destructive to living tissue. So by its nature, considering the temperatures and pressures that exist on Earth’s surface, CO2 cannot possible be a substance of energy absorption anywhere near the capabilities of water. However, CO2 DOES combine with water, and any absorbed heat in that molecule of CO2 is transferred to the water molecule, virtually eliminating CO2 as any kind of agent for absorbing or retaining excess heat energy. Water vapor serves as its coolant.

Runaway atmospheric heating is not possible under the sustained conditions here on earth, no matter HOW much CO2 may be pumped into the atmosphere, because the accelerated plant growth as a result absorbs the CO2 long before it could ever possibly reach a critical level.