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The American Petroleum Institute Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Howard Feldman warned of a "veritable tsunami" of new EPA air regulations for refineries that could "put some refineries out of business, diminish U.S. fuel manufacturing capacity, and increase our reliance on imported fuels" recently in a conference call with reporters: "The president himself has called on federal agencies to take into account the impact of regulations on jobs and the economy," Feldman said. "EPA should follow through by ensuring that their regulatory proposals are necessary, practical, and fair." Four U.S. refineries closed last year, according to Feldman. He said...

HERNANDO, Miss. -- DeSoto County has formally objected to the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to list it as "nonattainment" on ozone levels. DeSoto County officials also want the EPA to abandon a "misguided" proposal to list the county with Memphis as falling short on ozone standards. In December, EPA announced a proposal to include parts of DeSoto with Memphis, which has ozone emissions above allowable limits set by federal regulation. The plan would include urban areas of DeSoto County and Crittenden County, Ark., in the Memphis ozone "non-attainment" area. Ozone non-attainment could impair industrial recruitment by requiring prospective firms to...

Navistar International Corp on Thursday confirmed that it has received notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of an investigation into diesel-engine production that could lead to as much as $285 million in fines. In a letter dated Jan. 30, the EPA informed the Lisle, Illinois truck and engine maker that it is investigating whether 7,600 engines built in 2009 were properly certified under the Clean Air Act. Each violation carries a fine of up to $37,500. The engines in question were so-called transition engines, or engines built at a time when the company was preparing to launch a new...

Three West Virginia coal plants just announced they will close this year. Metro News reported: Ohio based FirstEnergy Corporation announces it will close three coal fired power plants in West Virginia by this fall. The closings come directly from the impact of new federal EPA regulations. The plants to close are Albright Power Station, Willow Island Power Station, and the Rivesville Power Station. The company says 105 employees will be directly impacted. The three plants produce 660 megawatts and about 3-percent of FirstEnergy’s total generation. In recent years, the plants served as “peaking facilities” and generated power during times of...

Debunking myths about the use of hydraulic fracturing to access oil and natural gas deposits was a big part of a presentation during the Northeast Colorado Chapter of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association banquet at the Country Steak-Out Thursday. Hydraulic fracturing -- sometimes called "fracking" -- is a process of pumping a water, sand and chemical mixture into shale formations under high pressure to break up rock and get oil and natural gas flowing more readily, said Dale Larsen, a sales representative for CALFRAC, who spent most of his career since 1978 as a petroleum engineer in fracking. He...

In roughly six months, owners and operators of nuclear generating facilities will have a new regulation to address. After a hiatus of more than four years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue a new version of the 316(b) Phase II rule, which regulates impingement and entrainment at cooling water intakes. The proposed rule published in the Federal Register on April 20, 2011, applies to existing power plants and industrial and manufacturing facilities that withdraw at least 2 million gallons per day (MGD) of cooling water and use at least 25 percent of that water exclusively for cooling pur-poses....

Here in Texas we produce a variety of products and services, notably energy, agricultural, and technology related, but also across many sectors (including my own construction industry). We also create and produce jobs. In fact, we do it as well if not better than any other state. Part of the right formula for job creation here in Texas has been lower taxes and less regulations. We have no state income tax and our legislature meets infrequently, denying them opportunity to do much meddling. These simple principles has led many companies to set up in this State, and in return many...

Participants in a recent shale gas energy conference held in Hobbs, New Mexico, referred to a whirlwind trip to Lea County, NM, as “exhausting” but “enlightening.” Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko, Mark Smith, and Daryl Miller, Susquehanna County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren and Pennsylvania state Rep. Tina Pickett were among local elected officials to partake in discussions and serve as guests on informative panels.

Vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in our foods, we expect. But information? According to recent research from China’s Nanjing University, when people eat rice, tiny sequences of microRNA from the plant-based food can survive the body’s digestive process and end up absorbed in human tissue where — and here’s the reason why we need to know about this study — plant microRNA may actually affect how our cells behave and function. In the study, Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA, published in the Journal Cell Research, the genetic material from rice showed up...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has again flexed its regulatory muscles, this time over the state of Florida. At issue is whether Florida’s waterways will remain in part under state supervision or fall deeply within the purview of a non-elected federal bureaucracy. The “Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida’s Lakes and Flowing Waters” is an EPA rule—as opposed to federal or state law—that would set the nutrient criteria for Florida’s waterways to a specific number, rather than keeping to narrative legal language to protect against pollution, as is currently the case. The scope of the regulation is...

Actual title is : It’s baaack! The plan to kill talk radio. Group advising White House wants to restore controversial policy An organization that helped to craft President Obama’s environmental policies has recommended the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, purportedly as a method of silencing critics of the theory of global warming. The Presidential Climate Action Project, or PCAP, last year released an extensive list of recommendations for the White House in a 75-page paper entitled, “Building the Obama Administration’s Climate Legacy.” Primary among the PCAP’s recommendations is that the Department of Energy should join the U.S. Department of Housing...

Its a tough time for hundreds of coal miners across southwest Virginia. That's because they're getting pink slips from A & G Coal, which is owned by Southern Coal Company. Mark Whooten is a spokesman for Southern Coal. He told News 5 who made the decision. "These layoffs are a decision by our corporate headquarters. They are market driven due to metallurgical coal market fluctuating violently at the present time." The company wouldn't tell us how many jobs they have cut, but we do know its sizeable according to the manager of the local employment office, Gary Hale. "On Monday...

In December 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency released new Clean Air Act “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.” Once again, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson touted the supposedly huge benefits of controlling emissions of mercury (Hg) and other air toxics from U.S. coal- and oil-fired power plants (or electric generating units, EGUs). The people of Idaho may welcome this new rule, since EPA’s miraculous modeling machine has promised to prevent “six premature deaths” and create “up to $54 million” in health benefits by 2016 – even though not one coal-fired EGU in Idaho fits the EPA’s final rules. Even the...

TOWANDA - While Bradford County has experienced extensive gas drilling for a few years, what will it be like after the drilling has gone on for decades? The three Bradford County commissioners and other local officials had a chance to get a sense of what could happen when they traveled last week to participate in a two-day conference in Lea County, N.M.

JANUARY 26, 2012 Newt Beats Mitt on Energy Gingrich has revolutionary ideas, while Mitt enlists Bush-era bureaucrats. By Robert Zubrin In the race for the Republican nomination, instead of focusing on where the front-runners differ on policy, most of the commentary has focused on their contrasting personalities, putative past malfeasances, campaign gaffes, debate performances, and other atmospherics. This is unfortunate, because in the critical area of energy policy, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are as different as night and day. Newt Gingrich has been advancing the cause of American energy independence for years. In 2008, for example, he published a...

Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Adjustments to the Allowance System for Controlling HCFC Production, Import, and Export

Government regulators, environmental groups and the news media tell us that the air we breathe is polluted, the water we drink is tainted, our orange juice contains a fungicide, and evil corporations are hoping to make a profit at Mother Earth’s expense. They also remind us that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies are protecting us by fighting the greedy capitalists who seek our destruction. Don’t believe it. The United States is among the cleanest nations on the planet.

If jobs are on President Obama's mind, he should care about the U.S. logging industry. In 46 of the 50 states, forestry ranks in the top 10 manufacturing industries. It employs about 2.5 million Americans and pays $87 billion in wages annually. Its annual sales are $230 billion, including exports of roughly $35 billion. Those jobs and that revenue now face a man-made crisis -- more specifically, a Big Green environmentalist-made crisis. Obama's administration could weigh in on either side. For 35 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has understood silviculture -- the act of harvesting trees, as opposed to processing...

ST. CROIX - After 45 years operation as the territory's largest private employer, HOVENSA announced Wednesday that the 350,000-barrel-per-day refinery will shut down and more than 2,000 employees will be dismissed. "This is a catastrophic event. This is like a hurricane hitting a community or an earthquake," said Sen. Louis Patrick Hill, who began a Senate committee hearing with an announcement of the news Wednesday. HOVENSA has 2,150 direct and contract employees, and its operations account for about 20 percent of the territory's gross domestic product. The refinery's closure represents "at a minimum" a loss of about $60 million in...

On January 9, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving yet another instance of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overreach. Sackett v. EPA involves two Idaho property-owners with a .63 acre parcel near idyllic Priest Lake. In 2007, Michael and Chantell Sackett sought to build a home on their bucolic real estate and began preparing their land for construction. Their dreams were thwarted when the EPA asserted that their property was a federally protected wetland. The EPA ordered Mr. and Mrs. Sackett to reverse their actions and obtain a multi-thousand dollar permit prior to any subsequent home...

The Obama Administration killed the Keystone Pipeline project today. Up next is the coal industry. New EPA regulations will force 32 coal plants to close their doors putting hundreds of Americans out of work. The latest move by the EPA will force new regulations on 26 states. The new rules will kill thousands of jobs, cost billions of dollars and increase electricity rates for every family.New EPA rules will force Western coal-fired power plants to install haze-reducing pollution-control equipment at a cost of $1.6 billion a year. ....The Obama Administration’s new energy regulations will shut down about 8% of all...

In January, Hovensa entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department in which the company agreed to invest $700 million on pollution controls after a series of chemical releases affected people living downwind from the refinery. Hovensa also agreed to pay a $5.4 million penalty for violating the Clean Air Act. It is unclear how the agreement will be affected by the closure.

A U.S. safety regulator will look at whether pipelines carrying petroleum from Canada's oil sands are at greater risk for spills than those carrying other types of crude, and whether any changes are needed to its rules. The new study, to be completed by July 2013, could address some of the issues in play in the debate between environmental groups and the oil industry about TransCanada Corp's $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline project, designed to feed 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the Canadian oil sands into the United States. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental...

Justice Samuel Alito seemed none too pleased last week with the government’s argument in a case pitting property owners against the Environmental Protection Agency. Four years ago, Mike and Chantell Sackett bought property to build their dream home near a lake in Idaho. After obtaining local permits the Sacketts began work, pouring in some land fill. But their work came to a screeching halt when they were visited by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. The couple was slapped with a compliance order asserting that the land is subject to the Clean Water Act and that they had illegally placed...

There's just a short video at the source.

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry of Texas continued to fight for votes Saturday, squeezing in a quick morning talk in Mount Pleasant before a Fox News forum. Perry, who is polling in fifth place, stopped by Page’s Okra Grill on Coleman Boulevard, emphasizing that he’s the only candidate in the race who doesn’t have a Wall Street or Washington, D.C., mentality. If elected, Perry said, he would support a 20 percent flat tax for all — corporations and individuals. “Corporate lobbyists will hate that, but tough,” said Perry. “I’m tired of Main Street paying for all of these corporate...

By Kirk Myers, Seminole County Environmental News Examiner This article, the second in a series, focuses on the misleading performance claims surrounding the “more energy efficient” compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs now replacing traditional incandescent bulbs. These potentially harmful mercury-filled lamps (see my previous column describing the dangers) are being forced on consumers by the U.S. congress with support from the Green Lobby and light-bulb manufacturers like GE, Sylvania and Phillips. These and other manufacturers stand to make huge profits selling the more expensive CFLs (more on that issue in my next column). There is a growing body of evidence...

Armed with surgical masks and hand-made placards drawing attention to clean air, Westfield Concerned Citizens continued their opposition to a proposed 431 megawatt natural gas fired electrical generating plant here Thursday. The group, which formed shortly after the $400 million plant was proposed in 2008 by Pioneer Valley Energy Center, was among more than 150 people at North Middle School attending a public hearing on a federal Environment Protection Agency pending air quality permit for the plant. “The mask makes a statement,” said registered nurse Gail S. Bean of Westfield. “The mask prevents toxins from entering the lungs,” she explained...

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

Gosh, it’s tough to figure out why that recovery is stalled. The Orwellian nightmare of running a business in the shadow of the Obama Administration is nicely captured in this story from the New York Times, which explains why motor fuel companies are about to be fined $6.8 million for failure to use a biofuel that does not exist: In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and...

BISMARCK, N.D.—North Dakota granted a fourth extension of state aid for study of a plan to build a coal-to-liquid fuel factory, while the project's developers wait to see if the political climate in Washington changes after the presidential election. Dallas-based North American Coal Corp. and Headwaters Inc. of South Jordan, Utah, formed American Lignite Energy LLC in 2007 to oversee construction and operation of the $4 billion plant at a yet-to-be chosen site in western North Dakota. David Straley, a North American Coal Corp. spokesman said a decision on whether to start construction depends on a change of political climate...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming. Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions. According to an Associated Press analysis of the data, 20 mostly coal-fired power plants in...

Complete title: Obama: EPA Regulations Create Jobs; 'EPA Touches on the Lives of Every Single American Every Single Day' (CNSNews.com) - In a speech to employees of the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said that EPA regulations are good for the economy and create jobs and that the agency "touches" the lives of every American every day. “We can make sure that we are doing right by our environment and, in fact, putting people back to work all across America,” Obama told the federal workers. “When we put in place new common-sense rules to reduce air pollution,...

In an apparent attempt to shore up support from environmentalists ahead of the presidential election, President Barack Obama made a trip to the Environmental Protection Agency to thank employees for what he said was the “historic progress” they’ve made in protecting the environment. “You protect the environment not just for our children but their children, and keep us moving toward energy independence,” Mr. Obama said in a speech to about 200 employees at the EPA’s headquarters in D.C. The president also sought to tamp down criticism from some business groups and Republican presidential candidates that environmental regulations hamper economic growth....

SOCORRO, N.M. January 10, 2012 – As oil companies deploy hundreds of wells in northeast Pennsylvania to tap into the lucrative “shale gas” deposits, many are weighing the environmental impacts, the economic outlook and the regulatory climate related to the latest bonanza in domestic natural gas production.

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. At issue is whether the EPA’s use of “administrative compliance orders,” which are essentially government commands issued to property owners, should be subject to judicial review under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. In other words, when the EPA tells a homeowner to stop building because of a possible violation of the Clean Water Act, does that homeowner have the right to promptly challenge the EPA in court? As Robert Barnes observes in The Washington Post, “Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared troubled by...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama defended the work of the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, saying he would stand with the agency that has taken a beating from Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail for regulations that the GOP maintains will cripple the economy and kill jobs.Obama, making his first-ever visit to the EPA, took issue with those claims, saying he did not buy the notion that there is a choice between clean air and clean water and a growing economy. He said the mission of the agency was "vital.""That is a false debate. We don't...

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist. In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required...

With a federal government lawyer conceding almost every criticism leveled at the way the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compels landowners to avoid polluting the nation’s waterways, the Supreme Court on Monday seemed well on its way toward finding some way to curb that agency’s enforcement powers. Their task was made easier as Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Malcolm L. Stewart stopped just short of saying that EPA was just as heavy-handed as its adversaries — and several of the Justices — were saying. Perhaps the most telling example: when several of the Justices expressed alarm that a homeowner targeted by EPA’s...

Conservative members of the Supreme Court seemed outraged Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions in a four-year battle with an Idaho couple who want to build a house on land the EPA says contains sensitive wetlands.

Since 2007, Mike and Chantell Sackett have been fighting to build their dream home on the Idaho lot they bought years ago. The Sacketts say they had gotten local permits and spent thousands prepping the land for construction - then the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed up. The EPA told the Sacketts their property contained wetlands and issued a compliance order mandating that they return it to its original state or risk facing fines starting at $37,500 per day. The Sacketts say they were stunned, and asked the EPA for a hearing on the matter. The agency denied their request,...

The government’s actions in a dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and a husband and wife targeted by the agency when they bought a residential lot in Idaho and started building their dream home are both “outrageous” and “very strange.” There were comments today from justices on the U.S. Supreme Court about the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions in a fight with Mike and Chantell Sackett, of Priest Lake, Idaho. Their case began in 2005 when the Sacketts were working on their dream home. Their land, purchased for $23,000, is about two-thirds of an acre and is about 500 feet from...

WASHINGTON – John R. Wiehl and the company, Franklin Non-Ferrous Foundry, Inc., pleaded guilty today, to unlawfully storing hazardous waste (in violation of RICRA). Wiehl, 64, is the president of the foundry… A byproduct of the foundry’s operation is lead and cadmium. In April and August 2009, OSHA… found waste… without a permit. OSHA reported to EPA. In December 2009, EPA executed a search warrant at the foundry and discovered drums of hazardous waste. A federal grand jury indicted Wiehl for unlawfully storing since July 2005. Wiehl faces a sentence of two years in prison and fine of $250,000. Franklin...

(CNSNews.com) – In 2005, Michael and Chantell Sackett were working toward what many American families work toward, their own home on their own land, until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted their plans by declaring it a “wetland.” On Monday, Jan. 9, the Sacketts and their attorneys will ask the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to not only restore the right to use their own land – but to break the absolute power the EPA has over protected wetlands. The Sacketts, small business owners in Idaho, located a lot in the northern part of the state in a...

WASHINGTON — Several Supreme Court justices are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for heavy-handed enforcement of rules affecting homeowners. The justices were considering whether to let a North Idaho couple challenge an EPA order identifying their land as “protected wetlands.” Mike and Chantell Sackett of Priest Lake wanted to build their house on the land. But the EPA says the Sacketts can’t challenge the order to restore the land to wetlands or face thousands of dollars in fines. Justice Samuel Alito called EPA’s actions “outrageous.” Justice Antonin Scalia noted the “high-handedness of the agency” in dealing with private property. Chief...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency abruptly changed its mind Saturday about delivering fresh water to residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania village where residential wells were found to be tainted by a natural gas drilling operation. Only 24 hours after promising them water, EPA officials informed residents of Dimock that a tanker truck wouldn't be coming after all -- an about-face that left them furious, confused and let down -- and, once again, scrambling for water for bathing, washing dishes and flushing toilets. Agency officials would not explain why they reneged on their promise, or say whether water...

In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency provided $1 million in grants to 46 different non-profit and tribal organizations to promote what it called “environmental justice.” Since 1994, a little-noticed EPA program has handed out a total of $23 million in such grants to 1,253 organizations, for stated purposes that observers are questioning. President Bill Clinton and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) were responsible for implementing “environmental justice” as part of the EPA’s mission. In early 1990, following a lobbying push by the CBC, the EPA established the Environmental Equity Workgroup. In 1994 it was renamed the Office of Environmental Justice.

For the first time, the federal government is regulating big-rigs, RV's, and tractor-trailers in much the same way it's held car makers to rigorous fuel efficiency standards for decades. But a group of California truckers contends the regulations will drive them right out of business -- and has filed suit to block them. The Environmental Protection Agency is ordering large trucks and buses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent and overhaul engine design starting with models built in 2014. Most operators will need to spend thousands upgrading their rigs or buying new vehicles,

A group of Sacramento-area property owners and land managers on Wednesday threatened to sue the federal government if it does not proceed with removing a native beetle from the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially proposed removing the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the endangered species list in 2006. But the process has dragged along and the beetle remains protected. On Wednesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento-based nonprofit law firm, said the delay may have cost its clients millions of dollars over the past five years. Those clients include land owners, levee maintenance districts and...

To understand how the Environmental Protection Agency operates, one must first understand that it lies all the time. Its “estimates” are bogus. Its claims of lives saved are bogus. It thrives on scare-mongering to a public that is science-challenged, but the science remains and the EPA must be challenged to save the nation from the loss of the energy it needs to function. It must be challenged to unleash the huge economic benefits of energy resources—coal, oil, and natural gas—that can reverse our present economic decline. The latest outrage is the MACT rule—an acronym for “maximum achievable control technology” intended...