VIDEO: DC Occupiers Take Aim At EPA

By Lisa Kellman

Occupy Washington DC protestors carried crosses and laid three wreaths in front of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) building Thursday to mock memorialize the death of clean air and environmental justice.

Protestors accused the EPA of supporting the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline and failing to fully implement regulations within the Clean Air Ac.

“The environment is central to everything we’re fighting for,” said Occupy Washington DC organizer Kevin Zeese. “The government’s corruption and lack of oversight is letting the EPA get away with mucking up the environment.”

The protestors blamed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and President Obama for bowing to corporate pressures and failing to protect the environment.

They blew whistles and chanted, “Blow the Whistle on Lisa Jackson.”

The changes proposed to the Clean Air Act would regulate cross-state smog pollution and other environmental hazards. However, reforms have stalled in Congress.

Republicans and some Democrats from energy-producing states have argued that new rules would destroy millions of jobs. Such lawmakers have instead called for boosting domestic oil production, a move the protestors said would do more harm to the environment then create jobs.

“They’ll be hiring 2,000 people in each state to do work for about three months…the figures on employment are totally wrong on that [Keystone] pipeline,” said Ann Wright a protestor and retired U.S Army Colonel.

White House Answers Latta Request With Veto Threat

By Mikey Hothi

In a letter to President, Rep. Robert Latta (R-Ohio) urged Obama to support his amednment to the TRAIN Act, a measure that would ensure the EPA considers economic effects when updating air quality standards.

On September 2, President Obama asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw a draft of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which requires the EPA to set standards for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment, saying the uncertainty in regulations could have a negative impact on the economy.

The TRAIN Act is expected to be considered on the House floor this week and Latta believes that, with the inclusion of his amendment, the bill will receive bipartisan support because of its potential impact on job creation.

“[I] agree that the economy should be considered when implementing regulations and standards with such far reaching effects,” Latta said.

Despite Latta’s confidence, the White House issued a statement threatening to veto the TRAIN Act, saying the bill would undermine two landmark regulations under the Clean Air Act aimed at reducing public exposure to harmful pollutants. 

“While the Administration strongly supports careful analysis of the economic effects of regulation, the approach taken in [the TRAIN Act] would slow or undermine important public health protections,” the stamement reads. “If the President is presented with H.R. 2401, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”

Federal Waste Initiative Would Save Taxpayers $2 Billion

New steps being taken by the Obama administration will save taxpayers more than $2 billion over the next five years, said Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

Biden, who was tapped by President Obama this past June to oversee a government-wide effort to cut down on waste, said the cuts would mainly target the public healthcare sector.

“Today’s announcements…show that we can make our government more efficient and responsible to the American people,” Biden said. “If we’re going to spur jobs and economic growth and restore long-term fiscal solvency, we need to make sure hard-earned tax dollars don’t go to waste.”

According to the White House, a provision within the Affordable Care Act known as the Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractor Program would limit fraud by $2.1 billion between now and 2016 by targeting improper payments to beneficiaries. $900 million worth of savings would be doled out to states.

“We simply can’t afford to see even one penny of our health care dollars wasted and expanding this program will help us reach that goal,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Biden, who summoned cabinet officials to the White House this morning to review anti-waste plans, also announced a new effort being spearheaded by the Labor Department to minimize wasteful spending on unemployment benefits. The agency, which launched a new website that tracks improper payments on a state-by-state basis, also awarded $192 million to 42 states to improve their way of handling and distributing benefits.

“States bear the responsibility of operating an efficient and effective benefits program, but as partners the federal government must be able to hold them accountable for doing so,” said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

Biden will hold additional meetings in the coming weeks with cabinet officials to monitor efforts to cut waste.

Meanwhile, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calf.) released a new report this morning showing that new regulations put in place by the administration will cost businesses up to $380 billion over the next decade.

The report details how federal regulatory agencies have increased payrolls by 13% during President Obama’s time in office, and shows that the number of full-time regulatory employees is expected to grow to over 290,000 by next year.

Issa, who has been pressuring the White House to roll back rules since he took over as head of his committee back in January, said the new regulations would stifle economic growth.

“The businesses owners and workers who bear the brunt of these regulations are not Fortune 500 executives, they are main street business owners and workers from around the country,” he said. “These firms, their families, suppliers, customers and employees all bear the cost of these new and proposed regulations.”

Though Issa applauded Obama’s decision earlier this month to ask the EPA to scrap a key air quality rule, he urged the president to go further.

“Thus far, the rhetoric we have seen from the Obama Administration on the issue of regulatory reform has not been matched in deed.”

Plan To Raise Ethanol Standard Draws Resistance

The EPA’s plan to increase the amount of ethanol used in fuel is drawing criticism from experts who say doing so would hurt consumers.

Earlier this year, the agency was close to announcing that it would legalize the use of E15 fuel, or fuel that is 15% ethanol, 85% gasoline. That announcement was delayed, however, when the EPA decided it would take more time to test how newer engines - those manufactured after 2007 - and smaller engines handled the use of the higher blend of fuel. The estimate now is that the EPA will make the decision sometime this fall, perhaps as early as late September.

Currently in the U.S., ten states have mandates requiring all fuel to contain at least 10% ethanol, or E10 as it is known. In other states, the use of E10 is optional. In the U.S., corn is the main ingredient used for producing ethanol fuel. It’s because of this that some say raising the ethanol content in fuel would have a profound impact on everyday consumers.

“My concern is that we have a limited supply of corn,” said Bill Lapp, founder of an organization called Advanced Economic Solutions. “When you have demand exerted on the corn market [the price] tends to go up.”

Lapp, a former VP with ConAgra whose current company does consulting for food companies, said the net effect of E15 will be higher food prices across the board.

“We saw this in 2007 and 2008 when [corn] supply became tight because of ethanol demand being boosted back then.”

Since the EPA revealed last December that initial tests showed new vehicles would “likely be able to accommodate higher ethanol blends, such as E15,” an intense lobbying battle against the move has taken shape. Automakers have said ‘no’ to E15 on the grounds that it will damage engines, while food manufacturers have stood uniformly opposed due to price concerns. Moreover, environmental groups have said the higher fuel blend will create more pollution. Yet, backed by ethanol producers and farm state lawmakers, the EPA has moved forward with its testing.

Lapp says he’s holding out hope that enough push-back will force the agency to change its mind. Others, however, aren’t so optimistic.

“Unfortunately, the EPA will probably still wilt under pressure and legalize E15, wrote Matt Purple of the conservative American Spectator in a recent blog post.

“That’s bad news for any American who likes to drive.”

Majority Of Oil Lingering In The Gulf

A panel of officials from the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed to Rep. Edward Markey (R-Mass.), the lone member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in attendance, some rather “unsavory” numbers regarding the status of the Gulf Coast.

After the release of the oil budget report, Markey told the panel that Americans are reacting to the Gulf Coast situation with a “false sense of confidence.”

“Over confidence breeds complacency and complacency is what got us into this situation in the first place,” Merkey said.

Dr. Bill Lehr, Senior Scientist at NOAA, estimated that nearly 4.1 million barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico, omitting the nearly 800,000 barrels that were captured by containment efforts, but admits a majority of the oil is still present in the environment.

“Probably about three-fourths would still be [in the environment],” Lehr said.

The NOAA scientist pointed out discrepencies in his estimate saying that the only oil “officially” removed from the Gulf waters was that that was burned and skimmed. Oil contained using dispersants and that washed up on the Gulf shores as tar balls remain “in” the environment and Lehr said do not contribute to the percentages of oil removed from the water.

Lehr said that just over 10% of the 4.1 million barrels that spilled into the Gulf have been “removed” from the envorinment, leaving nearly 90% subject to dispersants, beach clean-up crews and natural dispersion.