California Sues EPA

California state Attorney General Jerry Brown is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for “wantonly” ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

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California Sues EPA on GHG Emissions

California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!

“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For political reasons, Google has blocked this post. [Aug 14, 2008]

Wildfires are big business. Big business is good business!

Here’s how the formula works:

1. Calif residents, instead of being discouraged (for obvious reasons), are encouraged to build their dream homes at the edge of wildlands, areas prone to wildfire. More than 1 million homes (about 61% of all new housing) built in California, Oregon and Washington between 1990 to 2000 were erected at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a University of Wisconsin study reported.

2. Brush clearing and creation of firebreaks are frowned upon because they are regarded as “too expensive!” The “excess fuel” which is not cleared away [or allowed to burn out the previous years] increases the danger to life and property, which continue being erected on ill-situated sites. The 2003 fires which extended from the Mexican border to Los Angeles suburbs, claimed about 20 lives, including one firefighter, and about 2,750 homes and other building. Official damage estimates ranged from $1.25 to $2 billion, making the fires the most expensive in state history. Now, they’ve got everyone by the short and curlies [soon their hearts and minds will follow!]

3. Thus a mini cold hot war is declared [an “arms race” with forest fires,] and the stakes are upped each year.

4. But what ever happened to President [sic] Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI)? Wasn’t it meant to stop the wildfires? Using the hype of the 2002 fire season, the Bush administration proposed a series of drastic administrative changes to the way our National Forests are managed. Combined, these proposals will give free reign to the timber industry across National Forests under the guise of “fuel reduction.” The President’s ill-named “Healthy Forests Initiative” will do little to protect communities and homes from forest fires, instead this sweeping initiative is concentrated on decreasing public involvement, reducing environmental protection and increasing access to our National Forests and other federal lands for timber companies.

Hiding behind the Smokescreen! President [sic] George W. Bush signs the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 at the Department of Agriculture Wednesday, December 3, 2003. White House photo by Tina Hager.

Bottom Line?

5. Wildfires are big business. You can’t afford to upset them. There must be enough fuel left in the wildlands each year for the business to remain profitable!

“In Southern California, clearing out the ‘excess fuels’ that have resulted from past fire suppression, and reconfiguring the landscape to create more firebreaks and other barriers to fire, would have been expensive but feasible,” said Robert Nelson, professor of environmental policy at the University of Maryland.

“So why didn’t government take effective management and policy action to reduce fire risks before total disaster struck?” Nelson asked. “Leaving aside the individual human tragedies, the costs [of 2003 wildfires] would certainly have been less than the $2 billion (and climbing) that is now projected in terms of fire-fighting costs and lost property values.”

Now, that wasn’t so difficult to understand, was it?

Related Links:

• California Torched by Worst Wildfires in State History
• Forest Protection & Restoration: Debunking the “Healthy Forests Initiative”
• President Bush Signs Healthy Forests Restoration Act into Law

• The War on Wildfire
• Telegraph Fire: Day 5
• What Next After The Telegraph Fire?

• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires [Aug 14, 2008]

CO2 Emissions Must Be Criminalized!

Your jokes just ain’t funny!

Bush to G8: ‘Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter’

The Independent on Sunday – By Andrew Grice, Political Editor in Hokkaido

President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

President Bush made the private joke in the summit’s closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered [cf., middle finger] salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry. He had given some ground at the summit by saying he would “seriously consider” a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

More …

George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets. (Source: AP). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

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Related Links:

• The White House of Horror!!
• EPA Plays Piggy In the Middle
• The right to disturb wildlife!!

Images of the Day: California Fires

4th of July Red, white and Blue Recipes!

US President George W Bush has declared a state of emergency for the whole of California. BBC/Getty Images. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

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But Will It Prevent Food Riots in the US?

‘Clean’ Energy Scam: U.S. senator seeks to freeze ethanol requirement

ASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is drawing up legislation to cap the U.S. renewable fuels requirement at 2008 levels – 9 billion gallons per year. Texas ranches are home to 2.8 million head of cattle. Cattle and poultry producers rely on grain for feed and have been hit hard by skyrocketing corn prices.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry petitioned the federal government to cut its renewable fuel requirement by 50 percent this year to break the vicious circle of grain price hikes.

Corn Belt lawmakers such as Iowa’s Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, whose state farmers are profiting handsomely from the soaring grains prices, have vowed to combat any legislative attempt to reduce or postpone the renewable fuels mandate.

A tiny sliver of transitional rain forest is surrounded by hectares of soybean fields in the Mato Grosso state, Brazil. (Caption: TIME). Photo:  John Lee / Aurora Select for TIME. (Image may be subject to copyright). See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

President [sic] George W. Bush said on Tuesday he is deeply concerned about high food prices but believes ethanol production is responsible for only a small part [sic] of food inflation.

“And the truth of the matter is, it’s in our national interest that we—our farmers—grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.”

The new energy law calls for the production of 9 billion gallons of biofuel in 2008 and 10.5 billion gallons next year, and a rise to 36 billion gallons in 2022 – with ethanol supply from corn capped at 15 billion gallons.

About 26 percent of corn production would be diverted to make biofuel in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grain prices hit record highs breaking above $6.50 a bushel. (Source)

Related links:

• As Bush signs energy bill, new issues come to the fore (Background)
  

• Fueling Food Shortages
• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel
• Former U.N. boss Annan warns of “hunger disasters”
  
• Growing world needs every form of energy: Shell

• UN food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Brazil Lula defends biofuels from growing criticism
• Corn eyes new peaks, may add to food woes
• Bolivia Morales: biofuels serious problem to poor

• Biofuels won’t solve world energy problem: Shell
• Food price crisis may hit world growth and security: U.N.
• U.N. food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Oil World expects states to cut back biofuel plans

• Lifstyle Winning Against Life?
• Emerging Food Crisis
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Topsoil

• Index of Human Impact on Nature
• 500 Weather-Related Disasters A Year
• Producing corn ethanol consumes as much fossil fuel as the ethanol itself replaces
• The Clean Energy Scam

• U.S. eyes shift away from corn ethanol
• Scientists: Stop Biofuels to fight world hunger

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