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#Post#: 6545--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: February 22, 2017, 6:04 pm
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[center][img
width=640]
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[center]How Big Oil
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/pirates5B15D_th.gif
Conquered the
World[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/ySnk-f2ThpE[/center]
[img
width=640]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-230117172434.jpeg[/img]
#Post#: 6548--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: February 23, 2017, 5:49 pm
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[center][img
width=640]
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[center]Bannon Admits Trump's Cabinet Nominees Were Selected To
Destroy Their Agencies.
[/center]
By Dartagnan
Thursday Feb 23, 2017 · 4:27 PM EST
SNIPPET:
At CPAC today Stephen Bannon, the Chief Advisor and intellectual
heft behind the Twittering infant that sits in the Oval Office,
provided a little glimpse of the future he has planned for all
of us.
In the clearest explanation for why nearly all of Trump’s
cabinet choices are known mostly for despising and attacking the
very Federal agencies they’ve been designated to lead, Bannon
explained—in very clear language--that they weren't appointed to
lead these agencies, but to destroy them:
HTML http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/23/1637009/-Bannon-Reveals-His-Intention-To-Deconstruct-The-Administrative-State-i-e-Destroy-The-Country#comment_65617044
[center][img
width=240]
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#Post#: 6565--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: February 26, 2017, 2:01 pm
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[center]Trump wants Pruitt to finish What Reagan Started
[/center]
Thursday Feb 23, 2017 · 5:50 PM EST
[center][img
width=640]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060914180936.jpeg[/img][/center]
HTML http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/23/1637002/-Trump-wants-Pruitt-to-finish-What-Reagan-Started
#Post#: 6580--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: February 28, 2017, 12:38 pm
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Agelbert NOTE: The following videos are from the PBS documentary
made based on the above book. The American people have been, not
just ripped off on the price of fuels while simultaneously being
manipulated into paying for oil wars with their blood, they have
been forced to PAY with their health and dollars for the
pollution which continues to degrade, and possibly doom, the
biosphere.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714183337.bmp
Please pass it on.
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/176.gif
[center]The Prize: A History of Oil, Money, and Power:[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/25EjBoKyE-E[/center]
[center]PBS The Prize Part 4 - Oil in the 20th Century [/center]
At this point, the Fossil Fuel Industry TOTALLY controlled US
Foreign AND Domestic policy. But The American public had not
caught on to that. As many today, they were propagandized (i.e.
SUCKERED) into thinking oil was the "savior" of mankind. >:(
[center][img
width=440]
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[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/_lz7llet1rg[/center]
[center]PBS The Prize 5 [/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/WLZiUwoeSwA[/center]
[center]PBS The Prize Part 6 - History of Oil[/center]
NO, OPEC DID NOT "end the power of the Oil Majors" as the above
video claims. But PBS has a way of avoiding certain painful
truths (like that fact that the USA put Saddam in power in Iraq
AND the Shah of Iran in Iran).
The next video starts talking about an "allied" army that
"fought Saddam's invasion". LOL! It was the USA that gave Saddam
the green light to invade Kuwait as a SET UP! The Oil Majors
USED the US Government to attack Iraq (in 1991 AND later in
2003). So, please remember that the fossil fuel GOVERNMENT is
alive and killing we-the-people to this day.
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/WuF48FQmJcg[/center]
[center]PBS The Prize Part 7 of 8[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/GwbeO0Tv-aQ[/center]
[center]PBS The Prize Part 8 of 8[/center]
#Post#: 6581--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: February 28, 2017, 1:08 pm
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[center]The REAL reason behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010 [img
width=50]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-120716190938.png[/img][/center]
[center]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=77pBcf0o444[/center]
NOW, with Trump, even the few regulations the oil pigs had will
be either eliminated or NOT enforced. Fasten your seat belts.
[center][img
width=640]
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[center]
Trump Wants Pruitt to Finish What Reagan Started
HTML http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/23/1637002/-Trump-wants-Pruitt-to-finish-What-Reagan-Started?_=2017-02-23T14:50:41.061-08:00[/center]
#Post#: 6606--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: March 2, 2017, 3:32 pm
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[center]Big Oil:
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/pirates5B15D_th.gif
[/center]
[center]From the Monopoly Men to the PetroDollar Recycling
System[/center]
"In May 1973, with the dramatic fall of the dollar still vivid,
a group of 84 of the world?s top financial and political
insiders met at Saltsjobaden, Sweden, the secluded island resort
of the Swedish Wallenberg banking family. This gathering of
[the] Bilderberg group heard an American participant, Walter
Levy, outline a "scenario" for an imminent 400 percent increase
in OPEC petroleum revenues. The purpose of the secret
Saltsjobaden meeting was not to prevent the expected oil price
shock, but rather to plan how to manage the about-to-be-created
flood of oil dollars, a process U.S. Secretary of State
Kissinger later called 'recycling the petrodollar flows.'"
- F. William Engdahl, A Century of War (2004) [38]
According to research outlined in Dr. David Spiro's book, The
Hidden Hand of American Hegemony (1999), it was during this time
(May 1973 during the first ever Bilderberg Meeting) that OPEC
began discussions on the viability of pricing oil trades in
several currencies. This unpublished proposal involved a "basket
of currencies" from the Group of Ten nations, or "G-10". These
10 members of the Bank of International Settlements (plus
Austria and Switzerland) included the major European countries
and their currencies such as Germany (Mark), France (Franc), and
the U.K. (Sterling), as well other industrialized nations such
as Japan (yen), Canada (Canadian dollar), and of course the
Unites States (U.S. dollar). [35] It should be noted the
powerful G-10/BIS Group of Ten also has one unofficial member,
the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, or SAMA.
In order to prevent this monetary transition to a basket of
currencies, the Nixon administration began high-level talks with
Saudi Arabia to unilaterally price international oil sales in
dollars only - despite U.S. assurances to its European and
Japanese allies that such a unique monetary/geopolitical
arrangement would not transpire. In 1974 an agreement was
reached with New York and London banking interests which
established what became known as "petrodollar recycling."
That year the Saudi government secretly purchased $2.5 billion
in U.S. Treasury bills with their oil surplus funds, and a few
years later Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal cut a secret
deal with the Saudis to ensure that OPEC would continue to price
oil in dollars only. [36]
In typical understatement Dr. Spiro noted, "clearly something
more than the laws of supply and demand resulted in 70 percent
of all Saudi assets in the United States being held in a New
York Fed account." [37] Naturally, this arrangement with the
Saudi government prevented a market-based adjustment, and was
the basis for the second phase of the American Century, the
Petrodollar phase.
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/acigar.gifWhat
follows is the
extraordinary history in which petrodollar recycling was
vigorously implemented during the 1970s.
Beginning in the mid-1970's the American Century system of
global economic dominance underwent a dramatic change. The oil
price shocks of 1973-1974 and 1979 suddenly created enormous
demand for the floating dollar. Oil importing countries from
Germany to Argentina to Japan, all were faced with how to
acquire export-based dollars to pay their expensive new oil
import bills. The rise in the price of oil flooded OPEC with
dollars that far exceeded domestic investment needs, and were
therefore categorized as "surplus petrodollars." A major share
of these oil dollars came to London and New York banks where the
new process of monetary petrodollar recycling was initiated.
Engdahl's remarkable book, A Century of War (2004), chronicles
how certain geopolitical events mirrored a "scenario" discussed
during a May 1973 Bilderberg meeting. Apparently powerful
banking interests sought to "manage" the monetary dollar flows
that were premised upon what the group envisioned as "huge
increases" in the price of oil from the Middle East. The minutes
of this Bilderberg meeting included projections regarding the
price of "OPEC oil of some 400 per cent." [39]
In 1974 U.S Assistant Treasury Secretary Jack F. Bennett and
David Mulford of the London-based Eurobond firm of White Weld &
Co set about the mechanism to handle the surplus OPEC
petrodollars. 40 Kissinger, Bennett and Mulford helped
orchestrate the secret financial arrangement with the Saudi
Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA) that creatively transformed the
high oil prices of 1973-1974 to the direct benefit of the U.S.
Federal Reserve banks and the Bank of England. [img
width=40]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013200859.png[/img]
Despite the financial windfall enjoyed by the U.S./U.K banking
and petroleum conglomerates who "managed the recycling of
petrodollar flows," most Americans regard the 1973-74 oil shocks
as a particularly painful time period of high inflation and long
lines at every gas station. In the Third World these high oil
prices created huge loans from the International Monetary Fund
debts to be re-paid entirely in dollars.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png
...now let's fastforward to more recent events...
On September 24, 2000 Saddam Hussein emerged from a meeting of
his government and proclaimed that Iraq would soon transition
its oil export transactions to the euro currency. [52] Saddam
referred to the U.S. dollar as currency of the "enemy state."
Why would Saddam's currency switch be such a strategic threat to
the bankers in London and New York? Why would the United States
President risk fifty years of carefully crafted global alliances
with various European allies, and advocate a military attack
whose justification could not be proved to the world community?
???
The answer is simple - the dollar's unique role of a petrodollar
has been the foundation of the dollar hegemony since the mid
1970's. The process of petrodollar recycling underpins American
economic hegemony, which funds American military supremacy.
Dollar/petrodollar supremacy allows the U.S. a unique ability to
sustain yearly current account deficits; pass huge tax cuts,
build a massive military Empire of Bases around the globe, and
still have others accept our currency as medium of exchange for
their imported good and services. The origins of this history
are not found in textbooks on International Economics, but
rather in the minutes of meetings held by various banking and
petroleum elites who have quietly sought unhindered power.
U.S. Dollar: Fiat Currency or Oil-Backed Currency?
"What the powerful men grouped around the Bilderberg had
evidently decided that May <1973> was to launch a colossal
assault against industrial growth in the world, in order to tilt
the balance of power back to the advantage of Anglo-American
financial interests and the dollar. In order to do this, they
determined to use their most prized weapon for control of the
world's oil flows. Bilderberg policy was to trigger a global oil
embargo in order to force a dramatic increase in world oil
prices. Since 1945, world oil had by international custom been
priced in dollars. A sudden sharp increase in the world price of
oil, therefore, meant an equally dramatic increase in world
demand for U.S. dollars to pay for that necessary oil.
Never in history had such a small circle of interests, centered
in London and New York, controlled so much of the entire world's
economic destiny. The Anglo-American financial establishment had
resolved to use their oil power in a manner no one could have
imagined possible. The very outrageousness of their scheme was
to their advantage, they clearly reckoned."
- F. William Engdahl, A Century of War (2004)
At this point he makes an extraordinary claim: "I am 100 per
cent sure that the Americans were behind the increase in the
price of oil. The oil companies were in real trouble at that
time, they had borrowed a lot of money and they needed a high
oil price to save them."
'He says he was convinced of this by the attitude of the Shah of
Iran, who in one crucial day in 1974 moved from the Saudi view'
'to advocating higher prices.'
'King Faisal sent me to the Shah of Iran, who said: Why are you
against the increase in the price of oil? That is what they
want! Ask Henry Kissinger - he is the one who wants a higher
price.'
Yamani contends that proof of his long-held belief has recently
emerged in the minutes of a secret meeting on a Swedish island,
where UK and US officials determined to orchestrate a 400 per
cent increase in the oil price.
- UK Observer interview with Sheikh Yaki Yamani (Saudi Arabian
Oil Minister from 1962-1986) at the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, January 14, 2001 54
As previously noted, the crucial shift to an oil-backed currency
took place in the early 1970s when President Nixon closed the
so-called 'gold window' at the Federal Treasury. This removed
the dollar's redemption value from a fixed amount of gold to a
fiat currency that floated against other currencies. This was
done so the Federal Government would have no restraints on
printing new dollars, thereby able to pursue undisciplined
fiscal policies to maintain the U.S.'s Superpower status. The
only limit was how many dollars the rest of the world would be
willing to accept on the "full faith and credit" of the U.S.
government. The result was rapid inflation and a falling dollar.
Although rarely discussed outside arcane discussions of the
'global political economy,' it is easy to grasp that if oil can
be purchased on the international markets only with U.S.
dollars, the demand and liquidity value will be solidified given
that oil is the essential natural resources required for every
industrialized nation. Oil trades are the basic enablers for a
manufacturing infrastructure, the basis of global
transportation, and the primary energy source for 40% of the
industrial economy.
During the 1970s a two-pronged strategy was pursued by the
U.S./U.K. banking elites to exploit the unique role of oil in an
effort to maintain dollar hegemony. One component was the
requirement that OPEC agree to price and conduct all of its oil
transactions in the dollar only, and two was to use these
surplus petrodollars as the instrument to dramatically reverse
the dollar's falling liquidity value via high oil prices. The
net effect solidified industrialized and developing nations
under the sphere of the dollar. No longer backed by gold, the
dollar became backed by black gold.
This brilliant if somewhat nefarious act of monetary jujitsu
enormously benefited not only the U.S./U.K. banking interests,
but also the "Seven Sisters" of the U.S./U.K. petroleum
conglomerate (Exxon, Texaco, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, British
Petroleum, and Royal Dutch/Shell). These major oil interests had
incurred tremendous debts from the capital requirements in their
large new oil platforms in the inhospitable areas of the North
Sea and in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
However, following the 1974 oil price shocks, their
profitability was secure. Engdahl candidly noted "while
Kissinger's 1973 oil shock had a devastating impact on world
industrial growth, it had an enormous benefit for certain
established interests - the major New York and London banks, and
the Seven Sisters oil multinational of the United States and
Britain." [57]
The unique monetary arrangement was formalized in June 1974 by
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, establishing the U.S.-Saudi
Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. The U.S.
Treasury and the New York Federal Reserve would "allow" the
Saudi central bank to buy U.S. Treasury bonds with Saudi
petrodollars. [58]
Likewise, London banks would handle eurozone-based international
oil transactions, loan these revenue via ?Eurobonds? to oil
importing countries. The debt and interest from these loans
would then flow to the dollar denominated payments to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), thereby completing the
recycling of surplus petrodollars back to the Federal Reserve.
..as for Saddam's switch that led to "regime change"...
Although this little-noted Iraq move to defy the dollar in favor
of the euro in itself did not have a huge impact, the
ramifications regarding further OPEC momentum towards a
petroeuro are quite profound. If invoicing oil in euros were to
spread, especially against an already weak dollar, it could
create a panic sell-off of dollars by foreign central banks and
OPEC oil producers. In the months before the latest Iraq war,
hints in this direction were heard from Russia, Iran, Indonesia
and even Venezuela. There are indicators that the Iraq war was a
forceful way to deliver a message to OPEC and others oil
producers, "Do not transition from the petrodollar to a
petroeuro system." Engdahl's conversation with a forthright
London-based banker is rather enlightening:
Informed banking circles in the City of London and elsewhere in
Europe privately confirm the significance of that little-noted
Iraq move from petrodollar to petroeuro. "The Iraq move was a
declaration of war against the dollar", one senior London banker
told me recently. "As soon as it was clear that Britain and the
U.S. had taken Iraq, a great sigh of relief was heard in London
City banks. They said privately, "now we don't have to worry
about that damn euro threat." [63]
Petrodollar recycling works quite simply because oil is an
essential commodity for every nation, and the petrodollar system
demands the buildup of huge trade surpluses in order to
accumulate dollar surpluses. This is the case for every country
but the United States, which controls the dollar and prints it
at will or fiat. Because today the majority of all international
trade is done in dollars, other countries must engage in active
trade relations with the U.S. to get the means of payment they
cannot themselves issue. The entire global trade structure today
has formed around this dynamic, from Russia to China, from
Brazil to South Korea and Japan. Every nation aims to maximize
dollar surpluses from their export trade as almost every nation
needs to import oil.
This insures the dollar's liquidity value, and helps explain why
almost 70% of world trade is conducted in dollars, even though
U.S. exports are about one third of that total. The dollar is
the currency which central banks accumulate as reserves, but
whether it is China, Japan, Brazil or Russia, they simply do not
stack all these dollars in their vaults. Currencies have one
advantage over gold. A central bank can use it to buy the state
bonds of the issuer, the United States. Most countries around
the world are forced to control trade deficits or face currency
collapse.
Such is not the case in the United States, whose number one
export product is the dollar itself. This unique arrangement is
largely due to the dollar's World Reserve currency role, which
is underpinned by its petrodollar role. Every nation needs to
get dollars to purchase oil, some more than others. This means
their trade targets are countries that utilize the dollar, with
the U.S. consumer as the main target for export products of the
nation seeking to build dollar reserves.
[font=times new roman]References [/font]
35. David E. Spiro, The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony:
Petrodollar Recycling and International Markets, Cornell
University Press, (1999) p. 121-123
36. David E. Spiro, ibid, p. x
37. David E. Spiro, ibid, p. 125
38. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil
Politics and the New World Order,' Pluto Press (2004, 2nd
edition), p. 130
39. William Engdahl, A Century of War, pgs. 130-138. Note:
Engdahl was able to purchase the secret minutes of a May 1973
Bilderberg meeting from a Paris bookseller. His book contains
actual photocopies of the cover page and related text discussed
in chapter 1. The cover page is stamped: "SALSJOBADEN CONFERENCE
11-13 May 1973." Also stamped on the cover page are the
words:"PERSONAL AND STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL" and "NOT FOR
PUBLICATION EITHER IN WHOLE OR IN PART"
53. William Engdahl, A Century of War, op cited, p. 135
54. Oliver Morgan and Islam Faisal, ?Saudi dove in the oil
slick,? Observer, January 14, 2001
HTML http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,42...
57. William Engdahl, ibid, p. 136
52. Robert Block, ?Some Muslim Nations Advocate Dumping the
Dollar for the Euro,? The Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2003
63. William Engdahl, ?A New American Century? Iraq and the
hidden euro-dollar wars,? currentconcerns.ch, No 4, 2003
HTML http://alienscientist.com/bigoil.html
#Post#: 6632--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: March 7, 2017, 1:26 pm
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[center][img
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[img
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Trump Steals ExxonMobil's Thunder for Obama-Era Investments:
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods announced the company's new $20
billion Gulf of Mexico spending plan, which aims to create 11
primarily US-based chemical and natural gas projects and 45,000
jobs, in a speech at CERAWeek Monday.
President Trump quickly took credit for Exxon's success,
tweeting several times about the announcement, and the White
House issued a statement that lifted entire paragraphs and
sentences nearly verbatim from ExxonMobil's release on the plan.
Analysts were quick to point out that most of the investments
Woods described were made before the election, with some dating
before the oil price crash in 2014.
Curiously ;), the White House didn't comment on Woods's other
focus in his CERAWeek speech: flaunting Exxon's progress on
environmental and climate issues and expressing support for
"transparent, uniform carbon prices." (Exxon plan: AP, Reuters,
WSJ $, Houston Chronicle. Trump response: Washington Post $,
Politico, Bloomberg, The Hill, Mother Jones. Carbon prices:
Politico Pro $)
[center]Forecast: Trump to Shower Industries with Gifts This
Week[/center]
The forecast this week calls for flurries of climate (in)action
from the White House. Let’s run through the list of nightmares.
Today, the EPA and DoT are expected to announce that they’re
starting the process to revise fuel economy standards. The
rollbacks will be a gift to the auto and oil industries, while
the American public will pick up the tab at the pump. There are
also murmurs that Pruitt will also go after California’s right
to create stricter fuel efficiency standards than the federal
government--a remarkably hypocritical position for Scott
“States’ Rights” Pruitt to take.
Also expected this week is an executive order instructing the
EPA to begin the long and intensive process of undoing the Clean
Power Plan while also lifting the moratorium on coal leasing on
public lands. This will be framed as energy independence or
security, but we all know it’s just another piece of corporate
welfare for Trump’s fossil fuel buddies.
Speaking of which, here’s a scary sentence from E&E: “The
Inhofe [img
width=100]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-241013183046.jpeg[/img]<br
/> infantry [img
width=100]
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/pirates5B15D_th.gif[/img]continues<br
/>to grow at U.S. EPA.” Apparently a number of alums from Inhofe
’s
staff have found positions within the EPA and across the Trump
administration. Which is just lovely. [img
width=50]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-070814193155.png[/img]
On a slightly sunnier note, Team Trump has not yet figured out
what to do about the Paris Agreement, despite conflicting
reports. While they deliberate, we’ll read and re-read Andrew
Freedman’s perfect explanation of why “Leaving the Paris
Agreement would be Trump's worst move yet.”
In the meantime, there are still clouds on the horizon to worry
about. One big storm cloud we’re watching: Trump’s proposed
budget. While Congress’s budget will most likely be better than
the bloodbath of Trump’s initial proposal, it will still be bad.
It’s not surprising that the proposed cuts to the EPA’s
scientific research would be so severe as to cause the
department to “implode,” but Trump’s even going after
bipartisan-supported efforts like the Energy Star program,
turning it over to industry.
Fortunately even GOP appropriators have said the money that
pours from the EPA to states will make it difficult for Congress
to cut the budget to the degree Trump is asking. And if the pork
barrel rationale doesn’t save the budget, maybe the GOP majority
will actually listen to their constituents?
That might be a good idea: a new survey out of Yale shows there
is widespread support for reducing carbon pollution and
increasing our investment in renewables. Even 62% of Trump
supporters think there should be taxes or regulations on carbon
pollution.
Unfortunately, not polled were the only voices Trump appears to
listen to: the corporate overlords he will apparently do just
about anything to appease.
So while uncertainty rains in the Trump camp, one thing is
certain: we’re bracing for a SHITSTORM.
[center][img
width=400]
HTML http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/004/099/shitstorm.jpg[/img][/center]
#Post#: 6644--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: March 10, 2017, 11:44 am
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March 7, 2017 | Rona Fried | Policy/Trends
[center]War on Regulations Takes Off [img
width=100]
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Last week, Trump ordered supervisors installed in all federal
agencies to carry out his “2 for 1” scheme to eviscerate big bad
regulations that supposedly hold our economy back. Only
regulations that cost industries $0 in 2017 can stay in place –
forget any benefits of holding corporations accountable, such as
saving lives, protecting human health, safeguarding fundamental
rights, worker rights, environmental rights, and caring for
wildlife and wildlands. And for any regulation that is put in
place, two must be eliminated even if they are entirely
unrelated.
“This fundamentally changes our government’s role from one of
protecting the public to protecting corporate profits, and will
lead to a dangerous new era of deregulation and corporate
“self-regulation,” says Robert Weissman, President of Public
Citizen, which is suing Donald J. Trump for the regulations
assault.
But this is just the beginning. If the Midnight Rules Act, REINS
Act and Regulatory Accountability Act pass, major items long on
the Republican wish list will finally be fulfilled. The bills
have passed in the House and now await Senate action.
◾Midnight Rule Relief Act allows Congress – in just one
vote – to repeal all regulations passed over the past year.
◾REINS Act [img
width=40]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013200859.png[/img]<br
/>(Regulations From The Executive In Need of Scrutiny ::)) give
s
Congress control over major new regulations, taking it out of
the hands of professionals in federal agencies. For the first
time, Congress would be in charge of approving regulations. If
not approved within 70 days, the regulation dies and the agency
is barred from taking it up again.
◾Regulatory Accountability Act [img
width=100]
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/>makes it very hard to set new regulations by bogging the proce
ss
down with over 60 new steps. Until now, agencies balance costs
and benefits when considering new rules, but this law requires
them to choose the “least costly” option as opposed to the “most
effective” option.
The House passed the REINS Act several times during Obama’s
term, but it was stopped in the Senate. The House voted down
Democrat amendments to exempt rules that affect veterans’ health
care, nuclear reactor safety, transportation of hazardous
materials, and the safety of products used by children under the
age of 2, reports USA Today.
Read our article, REINS Act Would Increase Toxic Pollution
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/reins-act-would-increase-toxic-pollution-48691/
These bills “give Congress sweeping authority to substitute
political judgement for scientific judgement. It gives Congress
permission to ignore all the years of technical work and public
comment used to develop public health, safety, and environmental
protections, and simply dismantle all these vital safeguards in
one fell swoop,” says Union of Concerned Scientists. It’s
ironic, because federal agencies develop regulations at the
behest of Congress in the laws they pass!
The REINS Act “could, in effect, impose a slow-motion government
shutdown, and would replace a process based on expertise,
rationality and openness with one characterized by political
maneuvering, economic clout and secrecy. The public would be
less protected, and the political system would be more abused.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more far-reaching, fundamental
and damaging shift in the way the government goes about its
business of safeguarding the public,” says Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute is
helping out with a 193-page agenda with a long list of
regulations to eliminate, and Rep. Meadows (R-NC) [img
width=40]
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/>offered a list of 232 regulations that can be repealed
immediately.
And who did Trump put in charge of advising on which regulations
to gut? Billioinairre corporate raider Carl Icahn. [img
width=40]
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/>With $16.5 billion, Icahn has plenty of money to protect (and
grow!).
Corporations are Thrilled
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/>
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Real estate developers, for example, are thrilled with the
rollbacks. Eliminating the “Waters of the US” rule makes it much
easier to build without worrying about protecting wetlands and
the streams half of Americans rely on for their drinking water.
When the Endangered Species Act is gone, that will take a big
pain out of the way.
Environmental Protection
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/> Agency
Federal contractors are thrilled that the House repealed Obama’s
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which requires
them to comply with worker health and safety laws before getting
new contracts. 30% of the worst violators received $81 billion
in federal contracts, according to a 2013 Senate report. It
affects the family of Rodney Bridgett, who was killed when a
piece of heavy equipment crushed him and Calvin Bryant, crippled
by a workplace explosion that killed 14 co-workers, for example.
A vote in the Senate is imminent.
On the chopping block:
◾lead safety standards in drinking water
◾unsafe chemicals to be removed from the market under the
Toxic Substances Control Act
◾gut enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts
◾prohibit payday lenders from praying on consumers with
high interest rates
◾gut Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform, Consumer Protection
Act, Food Safety Modernization Act, Pipeline Safety Act and many
more.
◾gut food safety regulations, net neutrality rules that
protect he Internet from monopolies, energy efficiency standards
for appliances and vehicles, and of course, the Clean Power Plan
that reduces emissions from power plants.
◾no more restrictions on oil drilling or coal mines on
public land
◾no more standards for healthy school lunches
◾standards that protect health workers from exposure to
infectious diseases
◾a rule to prevent mining equipment from crushing miners
◾rules that protect communities from oil trains from
exploding
◾protections for endangered species
Visit rulesatrisk.org to keep up (if you can!) with the rules on
the chopping block.
“It’s horrifying that even after the Wall Street crash, the
massive BP oil spill and numerous other public health and safety
disasters across the country due to a lack of strong
regulations, Americans will once again have to pay the price for
the consequences of corporate recklessness, greed and
lawbreaking,” says Weissman.
“Congress totally lacks the technical competence to review these
kinds of complex rules. Do we really want members of Congress
deciding whether a chemical can safely be used in food
packaging? Or the proper procedures for approving new drugs as
safe and effective? Or setting the allowable safety standard for
heavy metals in drinking water?,” asks Carl Pope, former Sierra
Club president.
Say Goodbye to Class Action Lawsuits?
HR 985, which would make it almost impossible for citizens to
join class action lawsuits – among the most effective tools for
victims of corporate abuse – will soon get a vote. Think about
the BP oil spill or Wells Fargo’s illegal bank accounts. HR 720,
HR 725 and HR 732 would make it harder for victims of corporate
wrongdoing to sue and hold them accountable.
How About a Rule that Requires the President to Reveal His
Taxes?
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[img
width=40]
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Although the vast majority of Americans want Trump to reveal his
taxes, House Republicans don’t like that rule either. Every
single one of them voted to block a resolution that would force
Trump to do what all other presidents have done on their own
volition.
The House Ways and Means Committee has the power to demand
Trump’s taxes, but the full House voted it down
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/>
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when Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ)
brought it to the floor.
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/war-regulations-takes-off/
Agelbert NOTE: Message from the Trump Team to we-the-people:
[center]
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#Post#: 6647--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: March 10, 2017, 1:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Agelbert Note: Tulsa World journalist understands what is going
on
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/pirates5B15D_th.gif
at the
EPA.
SNIPPET:
[quote]
It’s clear from all of this that Scott Pruitt misled Congress
and the American people about his intentions and beliefs as
regards a core agency responsibility of regulating CO2
emissions.
For these reasons, Senators should demand that Pruitt be removed
from his position -- that way he can be a fossil fuel lobbyist
on his own time and not the government’s dime.
The arsonist is now in charge of the fire department, and Pruitt
wants to let the climate crisis burn out of control. The EPA
administrator is supposed to protect families and communities
from environmental crises, but all Pruitt is willing to do is
spewing corporate polluter talking points.
Pruitt is clearly unfit and uniquely unsuited to do the job he
has been entrusted to do.[/quote]
HTML http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/othervoices/liz-perera-scott-pruitt-misled-congress-and-is-the-arsonist/article_c5bd99e3-f667-5a78-b1b1-0056587f70c0.html
#Post#: 6654--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
By: AGelbert Date: March 12, 2017, 11:43 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/blogimages/Screen%20Shot%202017-01-12%20at%2010.38.37%20AM.png[/img][/center]
[center]Beyond Cozy: Pruitt’s Oily Emails[/center]
[move]Communications Expose Troubling Links Between New EPA
Chief, Industry, Right Wing[/move]
HTML https://medium.com/center-for-biological-diversity/beyond-cozy-emails-expose-troubling-links-between-new-epa-chief-industry-right-wing-8bdf8b067488#.73uvch2fw
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