After his re-election, and a campaign in which global warming was barely mentioned by either candidate, Mr. Obama said that his first priority would be jobs and the economy and that he intended only to foster a “conversation” on climate change in the coming months....In political rhetoric, "conversation" usually means: I don't want to talk about it.
After Republicans took control of the House in 2010, Ms. Jackson became a favored target of the new Republican majority’s aversion to what it termed “job-killing regulations.” One coal industry official accused her of waging “regulatory jihad,” and she was summoned to testify before hostile House committees dozens of times in 2011. She was frequently subjected to harsh questioning that at times bordered on the disrespectful.Oh! Those terrible Republicans! Harshly questioning an African-American! Why it bordered on the disrespectful. At times.
Ms. Jackson, the first African-American to head the E.P.A....
Among Jackson's modest achievements (which appear to be limited mostly by President Obama's re-election-conscious decisions):
[N]ew vehicle standards will eliminate billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet over the next decade.Billions of tons over a decade? Did you know human beings on earth exhale about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year?
The NYT article ends with this quote from Jackson: "Before me... some people said that African-Americans don’t care about the environment. I don’t think that will ever be the case again." Ironically, that's the first time I've ever heard that stereotype.
ADDED: I was surprised to read that the EPA has 17,000 employees. What's the carbon footprint of an agency with 17,000 employees?
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57 comments:
Nothing lowers fossil fuel use like a dying economy. You've got to give her that, at least.
Welcome to our "post-racial" society.
Still too vanilla
Related, this Times article about the dire situation in Montana.
Kids right out of high school are nabbing jobs in the oil fields that pay $40,000 to $50,000!
The problem... They aren't going to college! Zounds!
The gloomy tenor of this article is quite funny. The Times even interviews the local high school principal who is very concerned, very concerned about this worrisome trend of young people finding good jobs near their homes.
[N]ew vehicle standards will eliminate billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet over the next decade.
The best way to engineer cars for consumers is always to first issue a government decree that defines the design specs.
And, a black government official should always issue the diktat. That makes the diktat super official.
17,000 employees. No wonder the democrats need more of our hard earned money. The bureaucrats are hungry.
AprilApple,
17,000 employees. No wonder the democrats need more of our hard earned money. The bureaucrats are hungry.
I was thinking that, too. Imagine how much unemployment will go up if they cut those bloated bureaucracies.
Are these rules why you can't buy a car with a v6 under 30 grand anymore?
Imagine how many real jobs in the private sector (jobs that don't require a tax payer to fund them) would increase if we could cut the waste and bloat in government? Some of these bureaucrats should find a real job and compete in the real world. We are edging close to the hunger game scenario where the nation is bled dry while the DC tax-sucking machine lives high off the decadence hog.
By Lisa Jackson, do we mean Richard Windsor? Man, if I knew when and how breaking the law was acceptable, I'd do it more often.
From Iowahawk, the 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport!
It took an entire Congress to design it!
Ironically, that's the first time I've ever heard that stereotype.
Their whole existence is a stereotype in their minds for some of them. It is all about their skin.
Most transparent administration in history! With fake e-mail accounts and everything.
After years of whispers that EPA officials frequently used private email addresses, fake names and coded messages to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, Jackson admitted recently to using "Richard Windsor" as her chosen nom de plume on a government email account.
Transparency! Her skin is slightly light brownish. So, shut up. racists.
I am curious as to how many EPA employees drive to work or take green modes of transportation. The Prius is much cooler than biking. Am I not supposed to eat fish due to Mercury regulations? The 17,000 employees would still be contributing to the carbon footprint if they were not employed by the EPA. Will these people decide to not have families, or maybe, out of distress over the environment, harm themselves or others for the sake of the environmental? I really want to have the statistics on how EPA officials live before trusting them to create more regulations.
The EPA always couches its edicts with saving lives (as if people won't die eventually) without putting $$s to it, but the EPA never ever mentions the number of jobs which will be lost and lives endangered because of the many factors triggered by life without a meaningful job - alcoholism, suicide, murder, cancer?
why isn't Lisa Jackson in jail? she ran a covert operation against the law.
"[N]ew vehicle standards will eliminate billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet over the next decade."
I would think that it would take some R & D and maybe an engineer or two. Silly me.
Can we pass a regulation that makes cold fusion real? 'Cause I think that would be neat.
17,000 employees with at least 34,000 email addresses.
I have worked in the environmental field for over twenty years and much of it dealing directly with EPA. Politics plays a big part in what drives the agency's agenda but mostly the desirable jobs in EPA are in developing new regulations, not enforcing the existing ones. There is no plateau or slowing down, more regs, more regs. The states do most of the permitting and enforcement, EPA just makes new regs.
She was frequently subjected to harsh questioning that at times bordered on the disrespectful.
Every article is an op-ed piece.
Journalism is dead.
Should we respect people who use pseudonyms to thwart FOIA?
Did you know human beings on earth exhale about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year?
From the point of view of Anthropogenically Forced changes, this is a meaningless statistic.
Still, because I try to be "Green", and all, I mostly sit around all day, and try not to exercise strenuously (although I *did* bowl last night) so as to reduce my CO2 emissions. (laugh)
What Runner JeffM said.
America has now entered the world of the old Soviet five and ten year plans where the writing of the plan is enough to accomplish its objectives. All is symbolism, and symbolism is reality. Doing things is for the little people who can't comprehend the moral superiority of the symbolist.
Look around you the highest personal goal of any status seeker today is to occupy a position that avoids actually doing anything more concrete than putting words to paper.
Our current president is a man of the times.
Did you know human beings on earth exhale about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year?
Any stats on how much CO2 emissions released by dinosaurs?
@ MM, re: (laugh), in your "Green" quest, it seems to me you should repress such urges
Should we respect people who use pseudonyms to thwart FOIA?
YES!! For ingenuity.
Shanna @ 7:31
I agree. I looked at the new Ford Fusion midsize this year because of its dramatic new look. But mechanically, all Ford wants to talk about is its gas mileage. You have a choice of at least 4(!) different engines - all 4s, not one six. My wife thought it was a dog to drive.
In the near future, we will all be driving gorgeous cars that can't get out of their own way.
Ever notice all the "black" women around Choom are even whiter than him?
As if throwing people out of work isn't "disrespectful".
The NYT article ends with this quote from Jackson: "Before me... some people said that African-Americans don’t care about the environment. I don’t think that will ever be the case again." Ironically, that's the first time I've ever heard that stereotype.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the rap was that organizations like the NAACP were said to be Uncle Toms because nuclear power companies and (remember) those Mobil advocacy ads used to get their support on economic growth grounds.
It's the reason leftist community organizer-types decided to make the location of polluting industries in low-income areas into a "race" issue, in order to bring communities of color, poverty and environmentalism together.
Ever notice all the "black" women around Choom are even whiter than him?
WTF?
Only a dumbfuck would make a comment like that.
RunnerJeffM said...
"[N]ew vehicle standards will eliminate billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet over the next decade."
That. Right there is the left in a nutshell.
Every car a Treb...........er......"Smart Car"
Except for the bureaucrats of course. they'll have Zi...er.......humveess
AprilApple said...
Imagine how many real jobs in the private sector (jobs that don't require a tax payer to fund them) would increase if we could cut the waste and bloat in government? Some of these bureaucrats should find a real job and compete in the real world.
There's the rub. Deep in their hearts, they know they'd never cut it in the real world where results are expected. It's the same with tenured liberal arts academics. If they're at all honest with themselves, they know their degrees and knowledge are worthless outside of a college campus. That's why they hate the real world so much.
I had no idea she's black. I've seen pictures of her and everything. I never noticed it, and I'd never heard it mentioned.
this worrisome trend of young people finding good jobs near their homes.
If you've ever been to eastern Montana, to towns like Sidney, you know why salaries have to be high to entice people to live there.
It's the same with tenured liberal arts academics. If they're at all honest with themselves, they know their degrees and knowledge are worthless outside of a college campus. That's why they hate the real world so much.
Another Althouse lemming dumbfuck yaps about things he doesn't know.
"If you've ever been to eastern Montana, to towns like Sidney, you know why salaries have to be high to entice people to live there"
Odd, you mean it's not the "living wage" laws?
I had no idea she's black.
No one thinks it's relevant. Except Althouse, of course, who is eager to throw red meat to the bigots.
I had no idea she's black.
No one thinks it's relevant. Except Althouse, of course, who is eager to throw red meat to the bigots.
The New York Times thought it relevant.
Did you know human beings on earth exhale about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year?
If we killed half the humans, we could get that down to 1.5 billion tons!
If you've ever been to eastern Montana, to towns like Sidney, you know why salaries have to be high to entice people to live there.
They aren't enticing people to live there.
They're hiring local high school kids.
Another failure by the ever pissed off Jake.
I had no idea she's black.
You probably don't think Elizabeth Warren is an American Indian either.
Eleven thousand employees!
I'm on a one-man crusade to demand attention be paid to the number of Federal employees in various departments.
Come on, Republican congress people, start mentioning the headcount! Do it soon, do it often. The numbers in these departments will shock most Americans.
So will the fact that most of those jobs are for life. No administration has ever demanded across-the-board layoffs of Fed employees, something that frequently happens in the private sector.
double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet over the next decade.
Oh wow. Without government there would never have been any motivation to cut costs by increasing fuel efficiency by a factor of two. Man, all that was needed was a law. While they are at it, I think the should amend the law of gravity to make light duty transportation really light so as to cut rolling friction.
Did you know human beings on earth exhale about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year?
The NYT is astoundingly ignorant when it comes to basic science. If they were as ignorant about politics as they are about science, they'd routinely confuse Moscow, Kansas with Moscow, Russia.
Of course, the NYT is not at all unusual in this- it's not as though journalists ever take any of those difficult STEM courses.
But I'd guess they could catch most of the larger bloopers just by paying a hard science grad. student a few bucks to review any stories with significant hard science content.
If they cared enough to do so, of course.
As for the EPA, the basic problem is that regulations are accretive: old ones never go away, and new ones are always being created.
Which is surely a formula for ultimate regulatory sclerosis.
"What's the carbon footprint of an agency with 17,000 employees?"
Impossible to determine until we discover all of the illegal covert communications they have been using.
Jake Diamond said...
"I had no idea she's black.
No one thinks it's relevant. Except Althouse, of course, who is eager to throw red meat to the bigots."
She thought it was relevant ...
“Before me,” she said, “some people said that African-Americans don’t care about the environment. I don’t think that will ever be the case again.”
Oh well. What is the weather like today in the world existing solely in your head?
who outed Lisa Jackson's super secret illegal covert email operation? was it Scooter Libby?
They aren't enticing people to live there.
They're hiring local high school kids.
So it never occurred to Shouting Dumbass that local high school kids leave these small towns in eastern Montana in droves. So yeah, the companies ARE enticing people to live there. Not to move there, but to stay and live there.
Dumbass.
Black officials are only criticized because they are black. There is no other possibility.
Equating "not littering" with "protecting the environment" was a big part of the presentation of "Earth Day" to school kids back in the 70's, IIRC. Also, turning off the water while brushing teeth (yes, even right next to Lake Michigan). Overpopulation of the planet and aerosols damaging the ozone layer were presented as other major problems. Now, we need to buy special gasoline to reduce the amount of ozone produced in the summer. There's still plenty of litter to be found, but maybe we've made a little progress in that area.
Anyway, all I really wanted to say was, why did it take so long to discover that "[N]ew vehicle standards" are all it takes to "double the fuel efficiency of the American light-duty transportation fleet." Frickin' geniuses.
Jackson's black? That's at least the fourth Obama administration official whom I would have never have known their ethnicity if some offended journalist hadn't informed me that I was racist for being suspicious or offended by said official's behavior in office. Holder (well, at the time of his nomination, actually - back when he was a lower-rung Clinton Justice Dept guy, no idea he was black), Jarrett, Rice, and now Jackson.
Clearly, I don't watch cable TV or look at the photos accompanying news stories, but isn't that what everybody wants, allegedly - judging by the content of character and behavior rather than skin hue and so forth?
"Ms. Jackson, the first African-American to head the E.P.A..."
Who knew? Certainly not I; I've seen her name in print often enough, but as I literally never watch TV, and never chanced across a photo of her accompanying any news article. (Though it seems, from some of the earlier comments, that she's perhaps benefiting from the one-drop concept?)
But why does this even matter?
If we are indeed going back to the 1949 Farm Bill, I believe there is a provision in it that number of USDA employees must not exceed the number of farmers in the United States.
"Before me... some people said that African-Americans don’t care about the environment. I don’t think that will ever be the case again." Ironically, that's the first time I've ever heard that stereotype.
Jeez, it's pretty obvious. African-Americans live on fried chicken and watermelon, both of which are environmentally damaging to produce.
Forget having kids in the future. I doubt there will be an affordable 50mpg minivan. Everyone will drive electric (coal powered) two seaters. Forward!
Jake- as others have pointed out, the NYTs pointed out she is black, not Althouse.
The Corpse of the Eggineers are on the move again, trying to use the EPA's clean water act as a replacement for their "waters of the United States" authority, which the Supremes severely limited some years ago.
My favorite example from that era is when the CoE District Engineer wrote the Public Works Director in Rio Rancho, NM an irate letter complaining that he was working in the "waters of the United States" without a 404 permit, when he had sent the City crews out to clean out the borrow ditch along Southern Blvd. in front of the Intel plant!
When did they clone Valerie Jarrett??
CAFE standards for the auto industry would be like Sugar Standards for the baking industry.
Just imagine pastry chefs being forced to churn out whole wheat bread in order to offset the sugar in their wedding cakes and eclairs.
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