Sometimes when you’re sifting thru general news, you run across a couple of items with 6 degrees of separation that truly make you go “huh??”. Such is the case in the legal battles of the proposed hybrid dry cooled coal-fired Desert Rock plant in New Mexico.
Early this year, the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global Power filed a lawsuit against the EPA for delays in issuing an air quality permit by the July 31st deadline for the proposed plant. New Mexico’s AG said it couldn’t be done because it would be in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano said the lawsuit was filed because the EPA broke the law by not deciding on the permit within the required time. By law, the EPA must make a decision within 12 months of receiving a completed application. Desert Rock’s application was deemed complete in May 2004.
“That’s easy math - it’s more than three years overdue at this point,” Maisano said.
The EPA agreed to the July 31 deadline to decide on the permit as part of a settlement of the lawsuit, but the state entities decided to intervene because they believe the permit cannot be acted upon until other environmental reviews are completed.
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In a news release, Attorney General Gary King said, “This permitting process is truly putting the cart before the horse. We believe there are a number of regulatory issues that need to be addressed by the EPA before it can make a decision on this permit.”
The issues King’s office raised include the plant’s possible effects on fish and wildlife, carbon-dioxide pollution and compliance with federal standards for ozone pollution.
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Technorati Tags: AGW, Economy, Energy, Global Warming
As GOP attacks mount on the issue of Senator Obama’s ties to Political Action Committees and Lobbyists, Obama’s campaign has undergone little scrutiny on his long-standing ties to the financial and banking community. In Obama’s speeches across the country he has repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for allowing “evil” subprime mortgage lenders and investment banks to lead this county into our current mortgage meltdown. Obama’s rhetoric on the mortgage crisis has been pointed and blunt, as stated on his own campaign website, “Obama will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders…Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for years, and introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices”.
Throughout the campaign season Obama has attacked Wall Street’s financial sector and ran a campaign based largely upon his “good judgement”. The problem with Obama’s rhetoric rests in the fact that tucked away in his database of 1.5 million donors are the approximately 130,000 power brokers that have funded nearly 60% of his campaign. Included in this list are the more than 350 campaign bundlers who have accounted for over $78 million in contributions. Read the rest of this entry »
Technorati Tags: donors, Economy, Obama
Glass half empty:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday there’s at least a 50% chance the United States will slip into recession, and that the storm clouds over the economy won’t clear until home prices bottom out.
Glass half full: (from October)
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has said the rate of US economic growth was slowing, but the odds of a recession are less than 50 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Technorati Tags: clinton, Economy, federal reserve chairman, greenspan, larry kudlow, Obama, recession, subprime mortgage crisis
Socialism thy name is Barack Hussein Obama:
Mr. Obama unveiled much of his economic strategy in Wisconsin this week: He wants to spend $150 billion on a green-energy plan. He wants to establish an infrastructure investment bank to the tune of $60 billion. He wants to expand health insurance by roughly $65 billion. He wants to “reopen” trade deals, which is another way of saying he wants to raise the barriers to free trade.
He intends to regulate the profits for drug companies, health insurers, and energy firms. He wants to establish a mortgage-interest tax credit. He wants to double the number of workers receiving the earned income tax credit, the EITC, and triple the EITC benefit for minimum-wage workers. The Obama spend-o-meter is now up around $800 billion. And tax hikes on the rich won’t pay for it. It’s the middle class that will ultimately shoulder this fiscal burden in terms of higher taxes and lower growth. Read the rest of this entry »
Technorati Tags: capital gains tax, conservative, dividends tax, Economy, liberal, personal income tax, senator obama, socialism, tax
Can’t really say I’m shocked or surprised at the MSM’s reporting of the SOTU tonight.
For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation’s strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. Today, the president is getting little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.
That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight. For the first time in four years, he will come before Congress able to report some progress in tamping down violence in Iraq. Yet the public appears to have moved on from the war — and possibly from Bush himself.
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Technorati Tags: , bias, bush, Economy, Iraq, msm, relevance, state of the union, stou
