O'Malley lobbies EPA to ease cruise ship pollution rule

Carnival threatens to pull ship from Baltimore over air-quality mandate

Gov. Martin O'Malley has interceded with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of Carnival Cruise Lines after the company threatened to pull its business from Baltimore over a pending air-quality regulation that would require large, ocean-going ships to burn cleaner fuel.

O'Malley spoke twice with Bob Perciasepe, acting EPA administrator, since late May to support Carnival's request for what the governor's press secretary called a waiver from the agency's cleaner-fuel mandate.

The EPA says the requirement, which calls for the use of cleaner-burning fuel in coastal waters, could significantly reduce air pollution not just along the coast but far inland. The cruise industry has warned of potential cutbacks in cruises and job losses because of higher costs.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-gr-omalley-carnival-pollution-20130616,0,825696.story#ixzz2XKjoyT8U

Religious groups pushing for city stormwater fee reduction

Committee OKs 83 percent cut as contentious debate continues

June 11, 2013|By Scott Calvert, The Baltimore Sun

 

The two Catholic parishes led by the Rev. Robert Wojtek could pay more than $6,000 in new city stormwater fees later this year — an amount equal to an entire Sunday collection at his Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Highlandtown.

To Wojtek, that means limiting the parishes' ability to provide services, such as letting community groups use the Highlandtown church hall at minimal cost or giving out food at the pantry behind St. Michael and St. Patrick Church in Upper Fells Point.

READ MORE:  http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-06-11/news/bs-md-stormwater-fee-nonprofits-20130611_1_nonprofits-stormwater-religious-groups

Global Warming and Energy Insanity

Rush Limbaugh hasn’t made a lot of green friends over the years with his “environmental wacko” tirades, but, given what’s going on these days, perhaps his rhetoric has been too mild.

Exhibit No. 1 is the sleek and sexy Tesla Model S. If you want the one with the lowest chance of stranding you on I-95, it will set you back over $100,000. You’ll be refunded $7,500 from the federal government, several thousand more (in most states) from state taxpayers, plus various other credits that governments bestow upon ostentatious and cheap virtue, like putting a special plug in your garage. Somehow, Tesla is still losing money.

You might have read otherwise. The company’s stock price doubled — to about $110 a share — after it reported a profit last month. Along the way, its genius founder, Elon Musk, hit upon the clever notion of paying off hundreds of million dollars in federal loans by issuing a jillion more shares of TSLA stock.

READ MORE:  http://www.nationalreview.com/energy-week/350359/global-warming-and-energy-insanity-patrick-j-michaels

Your next Obama scandal factory: the EPA

Another scandal in which the Obama Administration appears to have leaked confidential information for political purposes has reached the Senate.  The Washington Free Beacon reports on a bipartisan letter challenging the Environmental Protection Agency for releasing personal data on 80,000 farmers and livestock operations to environmentalist groups:

“We are writing today to express concern regarding the sensitivity of the data that was released,” the senators wrote in a letter to EPA acting administrator Bob Perciasepe. “Unlike most regulated facilities, farms and ranches are also homes and information regarding these facilities should be treated and released with that understanding.”

READ MORE:  http://www.humanevents.com/2013/06/07/your-next-obama-privacy-scandal-factory-the-epa/

Senators slam EPA for giving farmers’ personal data to extremist environmentalists

We first reported on the EPA giving the personal data of farmers and their farms to extremist environmental groups back in March. As we reported then, these groups include Earth Justice, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Now a bipartisan group of Senators are trying to hold the EPA accountable for giving this data to these groups:

DAILY CALLER – A bipartisan group of senators is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to answer for leaking the personal data of about 80,000 farmers and ranchers to left-wing environmental groups.

READ MORE:  http://therightscoop.com/senators-slam-epa-for-giving-farmers-personal-data-to-extremist-environmentalists/

EPA Eschews Transparency With ‘Sue and Settle’ Tactics

January 2009 had the potential to be the dawn of a new era in Washington. The newly-elected President Obama promised that his administration would be “committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government” and that it would “work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration.”[1] Four years later, however, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to be doing just the opposite by entering into agreements behind closed doors with environmental litigants.

One of the tactics environmental activists groups use to promote greater regulatory control over the economy is lawsuits. This is an especially effective tactic if environmental groups sue a sympathetic administration with the hopes of settling the lawsuit without the need for the administration to go through the regular regulatory process. This is dubbed “Sue and Settle.”

One of the most effective ways for these lawsuits to proceed is for the environmental litigant to sue the EPA, for example, for a missed deadline, and then enter into a settlement that allows the EPA to quickly enact new regulations while claiming that it was forced to do so by the terms of the lawsuit. In nearly 60 of these lawsuits,[2] EPA chose not to defend itself. EPA simply agreed with the terms set forth by the environmentalist groups. In nearly all of these proceedings, EPA also did not disclose to Congress, stakeholders or the Office of Management and Budget that it was even being sued until the consent decree had already been agreed to.[3]   

Read More:  http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/06/05/epas-sue-and-settle-tactics-eschew-transparency/

Green groups to Obama: Designate public lands to stop oil and gas drilling

Environmental lobbyists are pressing President Obama to turn more western lands into national monuments to prevent oil-and-gas companies from drilling there.

The Sierra Club is leading the charge and is sweetening its message with political sugar, saying Obama could thereby help Democrats win House and Senate seats in midterm elections year.



This week it will launch a campaign called “Our Wild America,” which will call for new national monument designations.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/302771-green-groups-to-obama-designate-public-lands-to-stop-oil-gas-drilling#ixzz2VLiWQE9k