It looks like the “luck of the Irish” continues today.
Last week, I reported the US House of Representatives was poised to vote on H.R. 1030, the Secret Science Reform Act of 2015. The purpose of this legislation is “to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating regulations or assessments based upon science that is not transparent or reproducible.”
The measure passed, along with another one that would put an additional check on the EPA:
The House has passed two Republican-backed bills that would place new restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency.A bill approved Wednesday would require the EPA to disclose scientific data behind proposed regulations, while a measure passed Tuesday would prohibit the agency from appointing registered lobbyists to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board.Both were approved largely along party lines. The scientific data bill was approved 241-175, while the advisory board measure was approved 236-181.Republicans said the bills would increase transparency at the EPA and make it more accountable to the public.”Right now, the EPA is trying to impose harmful regulations based on scientific studies that no one can check — not the public, not independent scientists, not even the United States Congress,’ said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “It’s called ‘secret science’ and it’s wrong.”If the EPA or any other agency proposes a rule that adds costs to businesses or infringes on private property, “the people have every right to know why,” McCarthy said.
Of course, Obama is threatening to pull out the pen and veto the measure.
If I recall, the original mission of the EPA was to prevent gross pollution caused by industrial activities. As a reminder, here is what that agency was actually mandated to prevent.
So, I can’t wait until he is forced to explain why Americans’ summer barbeques are now being targeted by the agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency has its eyes on pollution from backyard barbecues.The agency announced that it is funding a University of California project to limit emissions resulting in grease drippings with a special tray to catch them and a “catalytic” filtration system.The $15,000 project has the “potential for global application,” said the school.
And I can wait until one of the administrations spokespersons explains why the EPA wants to monitor hotel shower times.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower.The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.”“Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,” an EPA grant to the University of Tulsa reads. “Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.”
In contrast, the administration is proposing to waste millions of valuable taxpayer dollars in the study — reducing the vacation monies available, so the problem resolves itself.
Average citizens and their personal habits aren’t the only ones targeted by the Frankenstein-like agency, either. Florida and North Carolina regulators just went to Congress to officially pan the EPA’s plan to slash the emissions of “planet-warming gases” from power plants.
North Carolina environmental regulator van Der Vaart told lawmakers Tuesday that he “will not address the scientific uncertainty of the impact human activity and greenhouse gases have on climate.”He said the EPA’s proposal is illegal and his state should not have to submit a plan to meet the carbon pollution standards until the lawsuits are settled.“If the EPA wants to transform America’s power system by forcing a round peg into the square hole . . . it should have the prudence to allow the final rule to be reviewed by the courts before requiring states to undertake such a Herculean effort,” van Der Vaart told the House energy subcommittee.
A dozen states are suing to stop the EPA from implementing their plant emissions proposal.
The 1985 classic camp hit, Weird Science, features two high school nerds attempt to create the perfect woman. I assert that that their science is much sounder than that proposed by the EPA.
[Featured Image from Youtube]
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