In fact, for all the right-wing talk radio wage, the headlines were much, much worse than the story.
First of all, the deadline for when cuts in carbon emissions must begin was extended by two years, to 2022. For heaven's sakes, a lot can change by 2022. And even if things stand the way President Obama has proposed/ordered, it gives folks seven years to start saving money to pay their higher electricity bills. And 2022 is not when emissions must be cut to the bone; that's when power plants need to start cutting emissions.
Texas even got a huge break: instead of having to cut emissions by 39%, they only have to cut by 33 percent. Assuming the courts uphold all of this in the first place. And assuming President Donald Trump doesn't change things when he gets into office. Anyway, from the linked article:
The rules require states on average to make deeper than expected cuts in carbon emissions from power plants by 2030, but extends the deadline for when the cuts must begin by two years, to 2022.
Changes in the way the EPA set each state’s goals appear to have played out in Texas’ favor. Texas will be required to cut its emissions to 33 percent below a 2012 standard set by the EPA instead of by 39 percent.
“Texas should issue a press release thanking the Obama administration for listening to nearly all of its complaints” about the draft proposal issued last year, said James Marston, a former assistant Texas attorney general who is founding director of the Austin office of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Texas got a whole lot of things they claimed they wanted.”
But even as lawyers on all sides of the debate sought to absorb the final rule, which runs 1,560 pages, opposition poured in quickly from industry leaders in Texas and from the state’s top elected leaders in Washington and Austin. They called the new rules too sudden, costly and potentially illegal.
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Light Rail Finances For The Gullible
But, This Is How The Federal Government Does It
A must-read for those who believe in light rail and/or the California bullet train: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2015/08/why-valley-metro-phoenix-light-rail-cant-be-trusted-and-shouldnt-be-given-more-tax-money-to-play-with.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoyoteBlog+%28Coyote+Blog%29.
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Confidential Well Data Released
Posted.
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Sweet Irony
The Luddites lost their most recent battle to save the Arctic at the Port of Portland. The AP is reporting:
Hours after a repaired Shell icebreaker eased past protesters in Oregon to join an Arctic drilling operation, the oil giant used other vessels in its flotilla to begin excavating off the coast of Alaska in hopes of confirming the presence of billions of barrels of crude below the ocean floor.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC now only needs the 380-foot Fennica, repaired at a Portland shipyard, to be on hand at the drill site to ask federal regulators for permission to dig into oil-bearing rock already included on its Arctic offshore leases.By the way, I'm sure the two Greenpeace protesters (of the 13) that were arrested will consider their arrest a) a joke; b) a badge of honor; and, c) a temporary hassle. But every time they are pulled over for a minor traffic stop, the law enforcement data base will show "prior arrest." In addition, every time one of these idiots applies for a job, when it comes to the block, "prior arrests," they will have to check "yes" and explain. If it's a federal form and they check "no" -- because they think it was such a minor deal so many years ago -- it's a felony. Only if the charges are dropped will the "prior arrest" data be erased, even if the judge simply gives them a suspended sentence.
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At Least We Know Who Kelly Osbourne Hires To Clean Her Toilets
Link here to a most inflammatory video. But that's how Hollywood sees Latinos, I suppose.
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