Monday, December 06, 2010

EPA extends Clean Water Act to include CO2

EPA Issues November 15, 2010 Memorandum: Integrated Reporting and Listing Decisions Related to Ocean Acidification

The EPA administrator, Obama appointee Lisa Jackson, has issued a memo requiring states with ocean boundary waters to list those waters as impaired because of acidification. The reporting requirement is an extension of Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act.

Obviously, this is another dimension of the Obama administration's drive to institute a cap and trade regime targeting CO2 emissions. The motivation for using the Clean Water Act in this way has to be a recognition by the Administration that the AGW meme is dead. The new meme is biodiversity in the boundary waters and how CO2 absorption harms it.

There are a number of technical issues the EPA needs to iron out; mainly, definition of the procedure to use to establish the pH of the waters, and determination, by the EPA, of the pH level requiring action. This should stall any concrete action by the EPA before the 2012 elections. After that, a Republican administration can cancel the memorandum.

5 comments:

WomanHonorThyself said...

After that, a Republican administration can cancel the memorandum. ..we can only hope!

hbl said...

We will need to help by pestering our representatives when the time comes.

Anonymous said...

Between DHS the FCC and the EPA we are losing a lot of freedom.

Right Truth said...

If they can't get something by going at it directly they will go at it from every other direction.

I've decided that emailing, faxing, etc. does no good with politicians. We must CALL, talk to them in person, go to their office if at all possible. Most times they probably never see our snail mail or email messages, some aid does.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

hbl said...

Debbie, yes, staff usually read the messages. What will make an impression is if the Congressman's office gets a lot of mail on one subject. Which is why we must keep after our brethren to write the letters. My representative (Manzullo) has been pretty good at sending an individual response to some of my inputs.