EPA Starts Flexing Their Muscles

Lisa Jackson over at the EPA has begun to flex her muscles, probably in response to the reality that any sort of movement on the Cap and Trade legislation passed by the Queen Nancy-led House is now dead in the water after the debacle that the Health Care legislation has become.

She has issued an edict that places further restrictions on the level of smog permitted. Under President Bush the level was lowered from 84 parts per million to 75 parts per million. Ms Jackson wants to lower it to between 60 and 70 parts per million. This move should only cost businesses between $19 to $90 billion per year by the year 2020.

Why such a big spread? I don't know, ask the folks like that womanizer and breeder of illegitimate children and Obama economic adviser Peter Orszag.

All that I do know for sure is that this latest pronouncement by the EPA is more fluff then it is real substance right now. It is designed to appease the enviro-radicals on the far left more then it has any immediate effect.

Counties and states will have up to 20 years to meet the new limits, depending on how severely they are out of compliance. They will have to submit plans for meeting the new limits by end of 2013 or early 2014.

Why is it that everything coming out of this administration seems to be timed to happen after the 2012 elections?

Besides, haven't they heard the world is going to end on Dec 21, 2012 anyway?

This comes on the heels of an announcement earlier today by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that they are going to tighten up the rules regarding drilling for oil and natural gas.

"We don't believe we ought to be drilling anywhere and everywhere," Salazar said at a news conference. "We believe we need a balanced approach and a thoughtful approach" that allows development of oil and gas leases on public lands while also protecting national parks, endangered species and municipal watersheds.

Salazar, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, criticized the Bush administration for what he called a "headlong rush" to lease public lands. Early last year, Salazar suspended 60 of 77 leases in Utah approved in that administration's waning days.

The changes announced Wednesday are intended to bring greater consistency and public engagement to onshore oil and gas leasing, Salazar said, with a goal of reducing legal challenges that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars and energy companies months or even years of delays.

It appears that Obama's Environmental and Energy team is hitting the ground running in this new year. None of their new restrictions requires congressional approval and simply come about by royal fiat.