But he recently [said] that if some local companies support certain Inflation Reduction Act provisions, lawmakers might want to keep them instead of repealing the entire law: "The Inflation Reduction Act is mostly a lot of green energy stuff. It's also added a lot of costs out there and a lot of federal spending that's forced the inflation prices," said Vance. "And I also think that it's sort of hastening a transition away from things like the gas driven cars that most Americans don't want. So I think there's a lot of bad policy in there. And I'd like to see a lot of it gotten rid of."
People throughout our Nation should be able to count on their government to ensure that our air and water are clean, health care is accessible and affordable, financial markets are sound, products are safe, and workers are not exploited on the job. Courts have long deferred to federal experts to make these ideals a reality.
Unfortunately, today's Supreme Court decision sides with powerful special interests who want to roll back commonsense rules that protect Americans. President Biden and I will continue to do everything in our power to protect the American people and ensure that every person in our country can thrive.
[Their letter to the EPA noted that] "there are a number of Ohio communities under federal consent decrees regarding CWA compliance, including Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron, Toledo and Youngstown. While each of these communities is committed to reaching compliance with the CWA in a timely manner, they are also encumbered by aging infrastructure and constrained financial positions due to a legacy of deindustrialization."
President Biden pledged he would make Norfolk Southern clean up its mess in East Palestine, and his Administration is delivering. Last February, EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up all environmental damage caused by the derailment. In September, President Biden issued an Executive Order directing that Norfolk Southern continue to be held accountable for the derailment and address any long-term effects on the community. At the same time, the Administration has taken action to improve rail safety and continues to call on Congress to do its part by passing the Bipartisan Railway Safety Act.
TRUMP: They want you to use a heating system that will cost you at least $10,000 to buy and won't work very well. None of the stuff works as well. One of the things I did with the EPA is most of the states have so much water. It's not like a big problem. Now in some states they have a problem, and for that it's okay. But they have sinks where no water comes out. You turn it on, no water comes out. No water comes out of the shower. When I say "no water," [I mean] "very little water." You want to wash your hands, and you turn on the sink, and there's very little. Or you want to wash your beautiful hair and you're standing under a shower, and the suds never go. The water comes out very slowly. I'm sure you've seen this.
Q: Yeah, you take a drill & take the limiter out.
TRUMP: Well, you can, but now they make it so you can't do that so easily. They have a restrictor, and it restricts the water from coming out. So I ended all of that.
"The Court's ruling is a tremendously significant decision for State's rights and consumers. This ruling puts a halt to federal overreach, including far reaching EPA proposed rules that infringed not just on State's but congressional authority," Burgum said. "Leading with innovation, not regulation, and all-of-the-above energy strategies that are responsive to market trends, promote new technologies to boost production and curb emissions is an environmentally sound and common-sense approach."
In 2020, the US Court of Appeals struck down the EPA's Affordable Clean Energy Rule, which recognized the shift in delegating to the States the primary authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plans. The decision today in North Dakota vs. EPA reversed that ruling.
[The Hill, 7/14/14]: "Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is calling on his former colleagues in Congress to defund proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations at the heart of President Obama's climate change initiative. 'Using the power of the purse, Congress has the ability to block or prevent implementation of the EPA's proposed regulations on new and existing power plants,' Pence wrote. 'I respectfully urge you to support legislative efforts to do so."
TRUMP: I love the question, because our EPA is much different. We're very tough, but we get things done and we're taking regulations off like nobody has ever seen. I've cut regulations more than any other President in the history of our country, and I did it in less than three years. One of the reasons the economy is so strong is because of what we did with regulations. If the other side--we'll call it the "other side," affectionately--got in, they would have made regulations much, much tougher.
Republican opponents, agriculture groups and real estate developers have decried the Obama administration's 2015 rule--which included smaller streams and tributaries--as a regulatory overreach.
As a candidate and president, Donald Trump painted the Obama-era rule in a similar light, calling it "one of the worst examples of federal regulation," and making its repeal and revision a priority for his administration.
A: Yes.
SANDERS: The issue goes well beyond that problem. Climate change is already devastating, and yet we have a president and a head of the EPA who do not even recognize reality of climate change. And over the last number of years we have made success against air pollution and against water pollution. We have made some success in transforming our energy system. And the idea to go back and listen to the short term needs of the coal industry or the oil industry makes no sense to me at all. Look, here is the truth. What the scientific community is telling us is that climate change is one of the great environmental crises facing this planet. And if we don't get a handle on that, we're going to leave a planet to our kids that is not healthy or habitable. We've got to address that. The Trump administration is moving in exactly the wrong direction.
(VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: The Paris agreement handicaps the United States' economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country's expense. They don't put America first. I do, and I always will.
(END VIDEO) Q: And here's the argument by the EPA administrator:
(VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT PRUITT: It is a failed deal to begin with. And even if all of the targets were met by all nations across the globe, it only reduced the temperature by less than two-tenths of one degree.
(END VIDEO) Q [to former V.P. Al Gore]: Less than two-tenths of one degree, President Trump made a similar argument.
GORE: Well, first of all, it's not true. Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen much faster than you thought they could.
Clinton: Yes on both: "an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time." Supports EPA coal plant restrictions.
Trump: No on both. "Climate change is a hoax." "Cancel Paris climate agreement." Opposes EPA coal plant restrictions.
Johnson: Humans probably cause climate change, but not the role of government to regulate.
Stein: Yes on both. "Halt any investment in fossil fuel infrastructure."
Q: On Climate change: Support renewable energy subsidies?
Clinton: Yes.
Trump: No. Let market decide.
Johnson: Unclear. In 2012 endorsed a resolution for renewable tax credits, more recently said wouldn't subsidize wind energy.
Stein: Yes. Enact an emergency Green New Deal.
TRUMP: Energy is under siege by the Obama administration. The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, is killing these energy companies. And you take a look at what's happening to steel and the cost of steel and China dumping vast amounts of steel all over the United States, which essentially is killing our steelworkers and our steel companies. It's an absolute disgrace.
CLINTON: First of all, China is illegally dumping steel in the United States and Donald Trump is buying it to build his buildings, putting steelworkers and American steel plants out of business. That's something that I fought against as a senator and that I would have a trade prosecutor to make sure that we don't get taken advantage of by China on steel or anything else.
SANDERS: Well, that's what the CIA and the Department of Defense tell us. If we are going to see an increase in drought and flooding and extreme weather as a result of climate change, what that means is that peoples all over the world are going to be fighting over limited natural resources. When you have drought, when people can't grow their crops, they're going to migrate into cities. And when people migrate into cities, and they don't have jobs, there's going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment. And people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al Qaeda and ISIS are using right now. I think, when we talk about all of the possible ravages of climate change, which, to my mind, is just a huge planetary crisis, increased international conflict is one of the issues that we have got to appreciate will happen.
TRUMP: Environmental Protection, what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations.
Q: Who's going to protect the environment?
TRUMP: We'll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can't destroy businesses.
TRUMP: I would get rid of some. For example, the Department of Education. I would certainly get rid of a lot of it. I want local education. We could save a fortune with Environmental Protection--
Q: what is another agency you'd get rid of?
TRUMP: Even in the military, I'm going to build a military that's much stronger than it is right now. But you know what? We can do it for a lot less.
Q: So you believe you can spend less money on defense than we do today?
TRUMP: I think we can make our defense much stronger and spend somewhat less money.
HUCKABEE: There are a lot of things happening at the federal level that are absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution. This is power that should be shifted back to the states, whether it's the EPA or the Department of Education. We can get rid of the Internal Revenue Service if we would pass the FairTax, and move power back where the founders believed it should have been all along.
A: By protecting natural resources, we are protecting humanity. Humanity is completely screwed, very soon, if we fail to protect these resources. They should be used sustainably for the benefit of humanity. The environment and the economy are interdependent--they are not at odds with each other. In order to have a prosperous economy, you need to have the healthy environment to support it: for energy, for food, and for other aspects. The idea that they're pitted against each other is a concoction of misinformation from those who exploit the environment. We allow them to exploit the environment at our own peril, as we see from everything from air pollution and its health impact, to water shortages, to flooding, to extreme storms. These are not just happening in the Third World: we are beginning to pay the price for this very misguided, short-term, short-sighted exploitation of the environment.
Onshoring has huge potential. That's why Congress need to pass Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf's bill called the "Bring Jobs Back to America Act" (H.R.516) to help expand the onshoring movement and get American jobs back where they belong--here in America.
Americans aren't afraid of people who believe something. They don't care for people who claim to believe something but whose actions don't match what they say. It confounded some that while I was orthodox in being pro-life and pro-marriage, I also was an advocate for good stewardship of natural resources, health policies that focused on prevention, and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. Those positions were consistent with my worldview that we should be responsible in all of our relationships--with our planet, with our bodies, with one another, and with our Creator. It was never my desire to push a particular religious doctrine. Spiritual convictions should certainly be reflected in one's worldview, approaches to problems, and perspective. This is true of a person of faith in God or faith in self, nature, or nothing.
I said, "Gentlemen, I can assure you that I will not campaign against the proposal, and in fact, I am strongly in favor of it."
There has been a perception that conservative Republicans do not care much for the environment or the protection and preservation of natural resources. I remind people that the very word "conservative" means that we are all about conserving things that are valuable and dear. Few things are more valuable to us than the natural resources that God created and gave to us to carefully manage.
One of the proudest moments I have had as a governor is the passage of what became Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution. It forever dedicates a small but vital revenue stream to the conservation of our state's valuable and irreplaceable resources.
Florida should implement a voluntary statewide incentive program for energy efficiency. Florida should explore incentives for homes that pledge to meet the FGBS or similar standards. Increasing the energy efficiency of new homes will save homeowners money and will reduce the need for costly new electric generating facilities.
Florida should create an Energy Efficiency Fund to offer loans to public schools, public hospitals, cities, counties, special districts, and public care institutions. Eligible projects are those with proven energy savings, such as lighting and HVAC efficiency improvements.
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2024 Presidential primary contenders:
Gov.Doug Burgum (R-ND) Gov.Chris Christie (R-NJ) Gov.Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Larry Elder (R-CA) Rep.Will Hurd (R-FL) Gov.Nikki Haley (R-SC) Gov.Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) Perry Johnson (R-IL) Mayor Steve Laffey (R-RI) V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN) Rep.Dean Phillips (D-MN) Vivek Ramaswamy (R-) Sen.Tim Scott (R-SC) Secy.Corey Stapleton (R-MT) Mayor Francis Suarez (R-FL) Marianne Williamson (D-CA) |
2024 Presidential Nominees:
Pres.Joe Biden (Democratic incumbent) V.P.Kamala Harris (Democratic nominee) Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Independent) Dr.Jill Stein (Green Party) Pres.Donald Trump (Republican nominee) Sen.JD Vance (Republican V.P. nominee) Gov.Tim Walz (Democratic V.P. nominee) Dr.Cornel West (People's Party) 2024 Presidential primary also-ran's or never-ran's: Ryan Binkley (R-TX) Howie Hawkins (Green Party) Joe Maldonado (Libertarian Party) Sen.Bernie Sanders (D-VT) Kanye West (Birthday Party) |
Other Topics in the News:
Afghanistan/Taliban Black Lives Matter China Coronavirus Pandemic Energy Independence Gay Rights Global Warming Illegal Immigrants Israel/Palestine North Korea ObamaCare Second Amendment Supreme Court Ukraine/Russia |
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