Texas Parks Will Have Clear Skies 141 Years from Now Under Half-Assed State Plan

Amy, it might be worthwhile to point out that the atmospheric haze problem in the Big Bend area is due to the SO2 emissions from a pair of coal fired power plants in Mexico not far from Piedras Negras, called Carbon I and Carbon II.  Carbon II has a capacity of 1,400 MWe, about the size of that eevil power plant Big Brown.  The difference is that Carbon II has no sulfur controls and emits about 230,000 tons of SO2 per year.  This one plant emits more SO2 than all of TXU's coal fired power plants.

some references for you:

Carbon II: http://www1.american.edu/ted/carbon2.htm

TXU SO2 emissions: http://www.texasvox.org/tag/big-brown/

I am sure that just as soon as the EPA gets Mexico to implement a FGDS system at Carbon I and Carbon II, the haze will disappear from the Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains areas.

Name that highway

Myth: The EPA administrator should consider the costs of compliance when setting a new standard.

Reality: The Clean Air Act forbids factoring costs into a standards decision. The standard must be based on health science alone. Costs come into play later, when implementing rules are adopted. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld this separate process.

Myth: A state or region loses its federal highway money if ozone levels are too high.

Reality: No federal highway money is tied to ozone levels. Highway money can be suspended if a state flatly refuses to submit an acceptable ozone plan, but even that penalty is never imposed, because the law allows for second and third chances to submit a plan. There is no highway-money penalty if a plan fails and ozone remains high.

For the rest of us mortals, economic feasibility, what is economically and technologically POSSIBLE, must be the final arbiter.  At present, hysterical fears of environmental poisons disproportionate to the threat and dismissive of their associated benefits appear to drive an ever more radical, and irrational EPA. 

And here in lies the essential difference between the Abolitionists and the Utilitarian environmentalists.

@andypandy

In the year 2525, if man is still alive

that was so heavy when we listened to it in 1969 on the AM radio...like, it was far out.

@holmantx 

I'm thinking FM170.

@holmantx

Highway 61?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDgefX2sZRU

@pak152

Before your read this consider that in spite of every effort to prove up ozone is toxic–the EPA has not–so this new regulatory push is nothing more than aesthetics.  Ozone is not an allergen so it doesn’t cause asthma, it doesn’t cause lung disease, and human exposure experiments by the EPA sponsored researchers have not show any toxic effects.  NONE.

the WHO says this is wrong. Both short term and long term exposure to high levels of ozone produce significant health issues.

http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/78647/E91843.pdf

@MaxConcrete I couldn't agree more.  Excellent points and post.

@MaxConcrete

As you point out, the ability to reduce ozone levels is realistic and a reduction can be achieved if the coordination with the public and industry is done.

With this ability to reduce ozone clearly possible there is no reason NOT to continue to reduce ozone levels, it affects not just the afflicted (such as those with asthma) but contributes to continued good health for everyone. The 75 pp. is a very small further reduction from what has already been reached.

@holmantx What's amazing to me is that government doesn't understand that Ozone can have beneficial impacts on humans.  Ozone is the smell you get from using an electric razor, the smell coming from electric motors, and certainly the smell of the air right before a thunder storm.  But, exposure to Ozone is healthy.  They even make Ozone generators for Ozone Therapy, improving energy and health, and keeping you alert. 

http://in5d.com/100-benefits-of-ozone-therapy.html

Our government went off-course under Kennedy, and just got worse until Reagan was elected -- and that includes Nixon...especially Nixon. 

(And, for the record CO2 is not a toxic gas, and is good for our planet.  Without it, we would all die - including most animals. )

@holmantx

Myth: The EPA administrator should consider the costs of compliance when setting a new standard.

That is  bit of twisting frankly, the EPA is required by the 1990 Clean Air Act to prepare a cost/benefit analysis of its regs and submit to Congress the results. As the EPA receives its authorization from Congress, Congress can direct the EPA to change the regs if they find the cost/benefit is not acceptable. So no it is not the EPA Administrator but Congress which ultimately "consider the costs".

The SCOTUS agreed to hear a case on the EPA mercury regs based on the utility cos. objections on the cost. The EPA had prepared a cost/benefit analysis showing a substantial net benefit but these cos. argue the estimate did't fully address their costs of compliance.

@WhoisJohnGalt

"Unconstitutional"?

Article 1, Section 8 in case you wish to locate the authorization for the various federal agencies such as the EPA.

@mavdog ... trippy.

@ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul @holmantx

I'm thinking it US 62/US 180 as you drive away (south) from Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Pine Springs Campground)).

@mavdog @pak152 The EPA declared that CO2 was toxic, which it is not.  These are more political moves than anything else.  Why would a judge who is not an expert in science declare CO2 as toxic?  He was a Democrat and heavily indebted to Obama and Clinton. 

CO1 is toxic...starting at 25 ppm.  And, it can poison you as well as suffocate you.  Not so with CO2; it is a mechanical suffocant, but not toxic.

Neither Ozone nor CO2 cause allergies, and do not - as a chemical composition - trigger asthma.  In sufficient quantities, much more than are in breathable free air, they could trigger asthma from too little fresh air. 

And, speaking of frauds, we are now just discovering the DDT is not nearly as toxic to birds or humans as advertised, but it's removal from the marketplace HAS caused all kinds of vector-borne diseases.

@noblefurrtexas <== huffed way too much ozone

@mavdog @holmantx If you don't think the EPA reports to Obama, you've got another thinking going.  The midget director of the EPA, who is gone, and the Communist at SMU -Al Armendariz, who was the EPA Official, forced to resign over  'Crucify' comment - was a political affirmative action hire who honestly believed businesses that didn't buckle under EPA regs deserved to be literally crucified.  He was an Obama appointee. 

Congress can change the law as it regards EPA's charges, but Obama has already changed and made worse their policies and enforcements. 

The last thing we needed during the Obama Recession was further hard-ass moves by Obama to run businesses out of business, raise the already expensive costs of energy, and try and kill the coal industry. 

Meanwhile, the many millions he gave to Solyndra (run by one of his largest contributors) was wasted and misused for personal reasons as the company tanked.

@mavdog @holmantx

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20141126-epa-proposes-tougher-smug-limit-saying-health-depends-on-it.ece

That's about as likely as the President waiting for the new Congress to be seated before he enacts amnesty.  

The President and the EPA will have their turn again to ignore the Will of the People  next year.

Right now he's throwing a tantrum.

@mavdog

Article 1, Section 8 is unconstitutional !!

/sarc

@dallasdrilling.wordpress.com @WhoisJohnGalt One in the same EPA.  And, how about OSHA, another of Nixon's goofy moves.  That's been a disaster for businesses. 

Nixon was trying to actually make the environment better, but also knew unions would love his reforms...and they did.  But, none of the beneficiaries came to his aid when he was almost impeached. 

@pak152

maybe you should look at the Ozone study link again, for some reason you think it is the World Health Report 2000....

@pak152 <== said the world would end if Dallas implemented a 5 cent plastic grocery bag fee.

@pak152

oh, I see, although you can't refute ANYTHING in the WHO research in your opinion it should not be recognized because you disagree with how the UN "handled climate change"...

"handled climate change". that in itself is nonsensical.

@noblefurrtexas

If you don't think the EPA reports to Obama, you've got another thinking going.

I don't believe anyone has "another thinking going", (I could be wrong, the sentence is non-sensical)

The midget director of the EPA, who is gone, 

So you're not limiting your demeaning and pejoratives to blacks and latinos, now you are going after short people. "midget". very revealing...

and the Communist at SMU -Al Armendariz, who was the EPA Official, forced to resign over  'Crucify' comment - was a political affirmative action hire who honestly believed businesses that didn't buckle under EPA regs deserved to be literally crucified. 

Armendariz, a MIT graduate, has a doctorate from UNC, and is a qualified engineer. Do you have anything that proves he is a "communist"?

His "crucify" comment: ""you make examples out of people who are, in this case, not complying with the law ... and you hit them as hard as you can" -- to act as a "deterrent" to others."

"not complying with the law". Do you not support prosecuting those who violate the law

the Obama Recession 

what did this fictitious "Obama recession" start?

@noblefurrtexas "If you don't think the EPA reports to Obama"

Sure, being there are only 24 hours in a day, if one doesn't sleep it would be entirely possible for a President to micro-manage every governmental aspect of a nation with 300+ million people, and every dollar of a $16.8 TRILLION GDP.

/teatard idiocy off

@holmantx @mavdog ...  tougher smug limits are clearly needed in D.C.

@holmantx

sooo...you have no comment on what I said? nothing in what you responded with related in the slightest way to my post.

but you were able to throw in an Obama remark, an enunciation on a supposed "the Will of the People", and ending with a characterization about the Pres. being childish.

well done?

@pak152

here's another one...

We did.....demonstrate a significant increase in the risk of death from respiratory causes in association with an increase in ozone concentration.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0803894

@mavdog @noblefurrtexas It isn't necessary to repeat the academic credentials he claims.  Anyone who favors crucifying business people, or just saying they should be crucified, has no business in Texas or SMU. 

Armendariz was one of the conspirators involved in the sand lizard  fraud relating to its potential habitats in West Texas oil and gas production properties, when the FACT is that nobody has EVER even seen one of the things in West Texas. 

The EPA would list toothpicks as an endangered species if they thought they could harm Texas and the oil and gas industry.

@mavdog @noblefurrtexas what did this fictitious "Obama recession" start?

It depends on whether you rmark it from the day he started lying  about the economy, or the day he started fudging on the numbers AND lying. 

(If you like your doctor......)

There are way too many start dates without being specific.  But, don't forget that Obama supported, and voted for, the very policies that were responsible for the recession. 

@DonkeyHotay @noblefurrtexas Obama is too much of a lazy idiot.  He runs the White House like the Chicago mayor's office, thanks in part to Valerie Jarrett and the lovely Moo-chelle Obama who also worked there for a time. 

To call Obama a political hack would be too much of an elevation.  But, he's no manager of anything - except golf clubs.

@DonkeyHotay @holmantx @mavdog

I don't even try to correct the link however, I too found it precious that our town paper floats that out into the Ethernet for eternity . . . 

@WhoisJohnGalt @DonkeyHotay @mavdog That's absolutely correct.  We could save billions of dollars per year if we dismantled the EPA and fired its employees. 

The minute they declared CO2 to be a toxic gas was when I knew they were full of crap, and nothing but EnviroFascists.  It's just another cog in the chain for government to control every aspect of American life, and to continue to follow Obama's anti-American lead of weakening our country.

@WhoisJohnGalt

Article 1, Section 8 does not authorize Congress to legislate in the area of the environment, therefore, it is unconstitutional. 

odd, the US Constitution that I read says in Section 1, Article 8 "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States, also To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land, ending with To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

yes, the EPA is certainly constitutional.

All 50 states of the Union have their own version of the EPA as authorized under the 10th Amendment. There is no need for a federal agency. The states of the Union can handle their own environmental needs as authorized by their legislatures.

Your opinion of "need" is not the question, it is the constitutionality, which is firmly established above.

@WhoisJohnGalt "The states of the Union can handle their own environmental needs as authorized by their legislatures."

And when one State's pollution adversely affects neighboring downstream, downwind states, then who handles the issue?

Why not eliminate the State control, and allow individual towns, cities and counties to set their own wildly diverse and conflicting environmental laws for planes, trains, automobiles and water?

@pak152

here's another one...

Ozone exposure linked to thousands of premature deaths annually

http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/article01002.html

@noblefurrtexas 

It depends on whether you rmark it from the day he started lying about the economy, or the day he started fudging on the numbers AND lying.

oh, I understand, it's the "Obama recession" that you have dreamt in your own mind, the one that doesn't actually exist.

The growth of the economy during Obama's time in office, and recovery from the "Great Recession" caused by the financial meltdown which preceeded Obama's term, can't be denied.

except apparently by the delirious, "too partisan to acknowledge it crowd" of which you are a part.

@noblefurrtexas "If you don't think the EPA reports to Obama, you've got another thinking going. [sic]"

@noblefurrtexas "Obama is too much of a lazy idiot."

So you admit the abject idiocy of your previous laughable assertion.

Noted.

@DonkeyHotay @WhoisJohnGalt Let the states work it out between them.  That's what they've been doing since 1776.

Currently, the EPA is being used as a Fascist overtake of business, and now they are trying to control every ounce of ground water on private property. 

The 14th Amendment was the worst thing resulting from the Civil War, and has forever encroached on states' rights under the Constitution.  

And,  @mavdog @noblefurrtexas Obama has increased the national debt over 70%.  Black unemployment is edging up to almost 30% under Obama.  Real unemployment for the country is way up.  And, there are so many millions of people who have dropped out of the workforce and given up is at an all-time high. 

How many times has the Obama government announced one set of numbers, and then quietly revised the number on a Friday months later. 

When Obama makes his speeches - about all he does well - he has to weasel-word his presentation to make people think bad is good, up is down, and trying is as good as accomplishment. 

He has reduced employment instead of increasing employment back to where it was.  He's also cut a "full-time job: to part-time in the name of ObamaScare.

The guy is not only a serial and pathological liar, but he's also a terrible president.  He's never so much as managed a hot dog stand, and he has no business micro-managing a once-great nation. 

And, I won't even get into what a disaster he is has been micromanaging the military - which he has screwed up, the IRS - which he has used as a political weapon, the FBI - which he and Holder have used as a weapon, and certainly the EPA and even the BLM. 

We've not only had an economic recession under Obama, but also a receding in so many measurements we used to measure success, progress, and even the deterioration of race relations - in part - caused by the White House.  

@noblefurrtexas "Let the states work it out between them."

Sure, National Guard vs. National Guard.

What's the Vegas line on California vs. Wyoming?

@noblefurrtexas

Obama has increased the national debt over 70%.

False. All spending bills are passed by Congress, not the Pres. Congress has increased the debt.

Black unemployment is edging up to almost 30% under Obama.

False,as of October 2014 black unemployment is 10.4%

Real unemployment for the country is way up.

False, the unemployment rate peaked at 10% in Oct 2009 and is now at 5.8%

there are so many millions of people who have dropped out of the workforce and given up is at an all-time high.

False, the number of discouraged workers is down 42% from the high in 2010, almost 550,000 lower.

He has reduced employment instead of increasing employment back to where it was.

False, there are almost 9 Million MORE workers employed in Oct 2014 than were employed in January 2009. There are more workers employed today than anytime in our country's history.

wow, what a dubious distinction of false, completely wrong statements. congrats!

@pak152 @kduble @noblefurrtexas 

"The EPA says that CO2 is toxic.

The rise in CO2 of 1:10,000 since the year 1900 is equivalent to packing an extra eleven people into Michigan Stadium. I added those extra eleven people in green below."
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/putting-epa-toxicity-in-perspective/

Pogo, in about 1972, suggested that we could solve the CO2 problem if humans would just not exhale.

@pak152 "er uh Apollo 13 was a closed system earth has a particular group of living organisms that thrive on CO2 I believe they are called plants"

And when unchecked pollution kills off those plants, then what Einstein?

@mavdog @noblefurrtexas

Why do pig-ignorant lowlife repuglykkkan bigots like noblefurrtexas spew so many blatantly absurd lies?