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More make believe hyperbole. Must be another day of the week. Republican malfeasance again on display.
Screwy? You understand how this worked? At a refinery you'll have many different parts of the plant with emissions. To simplify my example lets say we have two process that each emit 4 pounds of emissions for a total of 8 pounds and EPA regulations dictate you need to remove 50% of those emissions. Under the plan in Texas they could remove them in the most economical and practical way, for example if they removed 3 pounds from one process and 1 pound from another they would be in compliance. That wasn't good enough for the EPA, they want 2 pounds removed from both processes.
The end result is the same, the plant has no more or less emissions either way you do it. The difference is the Texas rules gave the plant operators the flexibility of doing it in the most economical and practical matter.
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Forgot to add, this thread has nothing to do with the article you have referenced, this is a complete set of new rules and regulations on emissions.
Last edited by thecoalman; 08-21-2011 at 04:49 AM..
This is called the Cross-State Rule and it is only for 28 States in the Eastern Region of the USA - it has to do with wind blowing pollution to other States. Turns out there is no wind on the entire West coast, so they don't need any EPA rules. Lucky, Lucky.
The "rule" is 1,323 pages with parts of it still unwritten and "to be determined" - Lisa Jackson's EPA likes to keep everyone guessing until the very last minute and then give a short time to "comply". Time allowed for this "rule" is only 6 months instead of the normal years it takes to comply.
Last minute changes to the "rule".
Texas was added to the annual SO2 and NOX programs;
Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, and Massachusetts were removed.
Connecticut, Delaware and District of Columbia were removed from the NOX ozone season program.
interesting additions and removals
I read part of this "rule" when it was introduced in July - there is a Cap & Trade component to it (probably why there is such a short time period, to force C&T) - certain counties get a "waiver". I remember a county somewhere in Pennsylvania (swing state) and Chicago (whodathunkit).
This concerns power plants, industrial boilers and of course the oil/gas refineries in Texas. It doesn't have anything at all to do with Blackouts due to high air conditioner use - people don't use air conditioners much in January. Nothing to do with Enron, they have been out of business for years. States and power companies are already announceing rate hikes and the blackouts are sure to come. Power plants are shutting down in some States - I guess the folks that they served will just have to find an alternative to power (and heat next winter). It's going to get interesting.
This is all about Lisa Jackson and her army of greenies forcing Cap and Trade on the States - Lawyers will be happy, it will end up in court. The US Congress refused to pass a Cap & Trade law, so the Obama Administration is just going to do it with new "rules" and "regulations" and totally bypass Congress.
...... Lisa Jackson's EPA likes to keep everyone guessing until the very last minute and then give a short time to "comply". Time allowed for this "rule" is only 6 months instead of the normal years it takes to comply...........certain counties get a "waiver". I remember a county somewhere in Pennsylvania (swing state) and Chicago (whodathunkit).
Well, what do you know? WAIVERS, again.
Waivers are a tool of despots, when administered with no objective standards, due process, or rights of appeal. We saw it in Obamacare, and now the EPA. How much does a waiver cost? Do you pay with bribes or campaign contributions or accumulated brownie points? Or do you have to drop opposition on an unrelated topic? Can you get a waiver by licking boots?
In the United States of America, no official or bureaucrat should be able to arbitrarily decide who may ignore the law with no consequences, and who must either follow it or be punished.
That's pathetic, Mr. Bananas. The Wall Street Journal (hint: not a bastion of socialism) began reporting on the irregularities of Enron's financials and business. The commercial paper market and bond market (another hint: not bastions of socialism, either) slammed the lending window shut on Enron and the stock market (another hint: a capitalist structure) cratered the stock price of Enron. A last-ditch effort to merge with another company failed when it became obvious that the other company's shareholders would not vote for the merger (capitalism at work again.) Enron was poison, and capitalism puked it out.
You might try using actual information when formulating opinions. It would improve your posts immeasurably. Or at least point out any errors you see in the facts that I presented.
My point is that if capitalism worked the way Adam Smith wanted it to, that debacle never would have happened in the first place. "Capitalism puked it out" -- along with 21,000 other victims at Enron and along with about 85,000 other employees at Arthur Andersen...I guess capitalism kinda puked them out, too, didn't it?
For capitalism to work, there has to be transparency. There clearly was not, and for all of the "reforms" that have taken place, I think there's still a shocking lack of it even today. If there was transparency, and if capitalism worked as well as you seem to think, we would have learned from our experience in 2002 and not allowed the housing bubble to crash as it did in 2007 and 2008. But it did crash, and it crashed because there's so much that people cannot see in the so-called free market. And as in the two institutions mentioned above, the ripple effects end up victimizing a lot more than the "geniuses" who make all of the wrong decisions.
I agree that the regulations should be repealed but I also think Texas brought a lot of this on themselves by their stupid insistence that they have an independent power grid and not interconnect which would give them the ability to purchase power from outside the state during peak demand. They are the only state like that and why they do that is beyond me.
I agree that the regulations should be repealed but I also think Texas brought a lot of this on themselves by their stupid insistence that they have an independent power grid and not interconnect which would give them the ability to purchase power from outside the state during peak demand. They are the only state like that and why they do that is beyond me.
It goes back to WWII and manufacturing of war supplies in Texas.
An independent grid for stability and reliability for the war effort.
I know but that was a long time ago. Time to move into the current century.
Why..so the Fed can then regulate us and bog us down with studies and paperwork that take years to process ?
"Since roughly 1935, the majority of Texas utilities have opted to isolate themselves from interstate connection and thus from federal regulation over rates, terms and conditions of electrical transmission. Managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), they now provide more than 85 percent of the state's electrical load, covering 75 percent of its land area. For utilities, that makes energy a straightforward market to do business in, and it allows them to be more nimble and innovative with new energy sources. It also vastly expedites the process for renewable energy developers that want to plug in to state transmission lines."
Read more: Lone Star Energy: Why Texas Will Resist the Call for a Unified Grid - Popular Mechanics "
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