By Rick Manning
Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) got five minutes to question new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and forced her into a stunning admission — the EPA cannot quantify that their global warming regulations have actually done anything to move the needle on any of the 26 indicators they had previously identified in relation global warming.
The back and forth was both instructive about the thinking of the Obama Administration on the issue and how a Member of Congress should pursue answers to questions from any Executive Branch official.
McCarthy under direct, respectful but forceful questioning about the EPA’s own list of indicators of climate change answered, “They are indicators of climate change, they are not directly applicable to performance impacts of any one action.”
The immediate follow up question by Pompeo hit the nail on the head, when he asked, “How about the cumulative impact of your actions? Certainly you’re acting in a way . . . you say these are indicators of climate change. Certainly it can’t be the case that your testimony today is that your cumulative impact of the current set of regulations and those you’re proposing isn’t going to have any impact at all on any of those indicators?”
McCarthy then admitted that the EPA’s economically destructive regulations are more about positioning the Administration internationally then about meeting the very metrics of success or failure they created in the first place, “I think the President was very clear. What we’re attempting to do is put together a comprehensive climate plan, across the Administration, that positions the U.S. for leadership on this issue and that will prompt and leverage international discussions and action.”
Incredibly the same President who has no problem dismissing the Keystone XL pipeline because he doesn’t think it creates enough jobs is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of mining, utility and natural resource and manufacturing jobs on a climate change regulatory regime that is nothing more than kabuki theatre.
At a time when global warming advocates are scrambling to explain a sixteen year warming “pause”, which was not predicted by any of their models, as well as the inconvenient 60 percent growth of Arctic ice this year that blows up predictions of an ice free Arctic by mid-decade, now we learn that global warming regulations impact really can’t be quantified.
Unfortunately, the impact of these regulations can be tallied up.
One EPA regulation alone, known as the Utility MACT, is resulting in the closure of more than 30 coal fired electric utilities resulting in a dramatic decrease in electricity generation capacity across the nation. In Ohio alone, it is estimated that electricity consumers will see a 60 percent increase in their electric bills in the next three years due to the decrease in electricity supply due to the regulations.
Plant shutdowns not only cost the jobs of those who run them, but also of those who supply them with coal, and other suppliers creating a downstream hole in the economy as these businesses are forced to layoff employees or close outright due to the EPA regulatory impacts.
When it is all added up, McCarthy’s anti-affordable energy jihad becomes all the more puzzling.
Presumably a learned woman, McCarthy chooses to ignore that the crisis she is trying to solve may not even exist, and she can’t show that the actions she is taking are having any effect on the 26 indicators of global warming that her own agency identified.
After all, what possibly could be at stake beyond the hopes and dreams of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the future prosperity of our nation?
Yet, like Attila the Hun going through eastern Europe leaving destruction in his path, little can be done to stop the Obama Administration’s inexorable march against our nation’s coal producers and their customers.
Let’s hope legal roadblocks stymie much of Obama and McCarthy’s plan before their plan destroys what is left of our capacity to produce reliable electricity.
Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) got five minutes to question new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and forced her into a stunning admission — the EPA cannot quantify that their global warming regulations have actually done anything to move the needle on any of the 26 indicators they had previously identify in relation global warming.
The back and forth was both instructive about the thinking of the Obama Administration on the issue and how a Member of Congress should pursue answers to questions from any Executive Branch official.
McCarthy under direct, respectful but forceful questioning about the EPA’s own list of indicators of climate change answered, “They are indicators of climate change, they are not directly applicable to performance impacts of any one action.”
The immediate follow up question by Pompeo hit the nail on the head, when he asked, “How about the cumulative impact of your actions? Certainly you’re acting in a way . . . you say these are indicators of climate change. Certainly it can’t be the case that your testimony today is that your cumulative impact of the current set of regulations and those you’re proposing isn’t going to have any impact at all on any of those indicators?
McCarthy then admitted that the EPA’s economically destructive regulations are more about positioning the Administration internationally then about meeting the very metrics of success or failure they created in the first place, “I think the President was very clear. What we’re attempting to do is put together a comprehensive climate plan, across the Administration, that positions the U.S. for leadership on this issue and that will prompt and leverage international discussions and action.”
Incredibly the same President who has no problem dismissing the Keystone XL pipeline because he doesn’t think it creates enough jobs is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of mining, utility and natural resource and manufacturing jobs on a climate change regulatory regime that is nothing more than kabuki theatre.
At a time when global warming advocates are scrambling to explain a sixteen year warming “pause”, which was not predicted by any of their models, as well as the inconvenient 60 percent growth of Arctic ice this year that blows up predictions of an ice free Arctic by mid-decade, now we learn that global warming regulations impact really can’t be quantified.
Unfortunately, the impact of these regulations can be tallied up.
One EPA regulation alone, known as the Utility MACT, is resulting in the closure of more than 30 coal fired electric utilities resulting in a dramatic decrease in electricity generation capacity across the nation. In Ohio alone, it is estimated that electricity consumers will see a 60 percent increase in their electric bills in the next three years due to the decrease in electricity supply due to the regulations.
Plant shutdowns not only cost the jobs of those who run them, but also of those who supply them with coal, and other suppliers creating a downstream hole in the economy as these businesses are forced to lay off employees or close outright due to the EPA regulatory impacts.
When it is all added up, McCarthy’s anti-affordable energy jihad becomes all the more puzzling.
Presumably a learned woman, McCarthy chooses to ignore that the crisis she is trying to solve may not even exist, and she can’t show that the actions she is taking are having any effect on the 26 indicators of global warming that her own agency identified.
After all, what possibly could be at stake beyond the hopes and dreams of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the future prosperity of our nation?
Yet, like Attila the Hun going through eastern Europe leaving destruction in his path, little can be done to stop the Obama Administration’s inexorable march against our nation’s coal producers and their customers.
Let’s hope legal roadblocks stymie much of Obama and McCarthy’s plan before their plan destroys what is left of our capacity to produce reliable electricity.
Rick Manning is the Vice President of Public Policy and Communications for Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Rick on twitter @rmanning957.
