The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania faces a situation that must look strange to the uninitiated. It has obtained land to expand U.S. 219 south of Meyersdale, Somerset County. It has everything in place, including $300 million, to start expanding the highway this spring. Except . . .
Environmental Protection Agency approval.
The highway is part of the gradually expanding Appalachian Corridor system created in the 1960s under John F. Kennedy (prior to the establishment of the EPA.) Corridor N, as it has been designated, will be the most extensive highway project in Pennsylvania, once started.
Pennsylvania officials expect that timbering will take thirty days. A spring start cannot happen if the tree removal process gets pushed back farther into the unpredictable weather of November.
Even worse, the EPA blocked a plan to use coal mining to clear land for a planned expressway in Mingo County, West Virginia. The King Coal Highway, which would follow the present U.S. 52, planned to let CONSOL Energy mine the proposed path, then help to smooth it out for the road. Officials had praised this as a strong example of how public and private sector entities could combine for the profit of both.
West Virginia's entire delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, condemned the move. Senator Joe Manchin commented through a press re;ease from his office:
“As a West Virginian, I watched this project come together one
partnership at a time for the past two decades,” Senator Manchin said.
“As Governor, I made sure that the state supported the project’s
permitting and funding requests. Now, as Senator, I am incensed and
infuriated that the EPA would intentionally delay the needed permit for a
public-private project that would bring so many good jobs and valuable
infrastructure to communities that so desperately need them. The EPA has
lost court case after court case for its overreach, and it should be
using better judgment by now. I vow to work with the Governor’s office,
our entire Congressional delegation and members of both parties to make
sure that this vital project will move forward.
Republicans made the Environmental Protection Agency's increasing aggressiveness an issue in the campaign. Conservative victories may take some teeth from the tiger and restore many public and private sector projects.
Monday, November 5, 2012
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Congresswoman Capito Blasts Administration on Jobs
Congressman McKinley Frustrated Over Jobs, King Coal Highway Debacle
Manchin Urges Federal Government to Act More Quickly In Storm Response
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Thursday, November 1, 2012
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Media Ignores Benghazi Tragedy
Blue States' Economic Policies Fail
Caveat to this. West Virginia's state government is technically "blue." Governors Manchin and Tomblin received an A and a C respectively from Cato on spending. So they have Democratic Party control with conservative spending.
World Health Organization Latest to Propose Global Tax On Something
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Cato Institute, Consol Energy, and Joe Manchin Versus the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency received a triple punch this Halloween. And none of it came from the superstorm.
Mingo County, West Virginia's unemployment rate was at, as of last August, at an even 10 percent. That had ticked up almost half of a point since the year before. Elected leaders from West Virginia worked with CONSOL Energy to come up with a plan that would allow coal mining to take place along the route of a planned expressway. The King Coal Highway project would have taken a public project and used it for maximum private use.
Senator Joe Manchin's office and CONSOL estimated that up to 2,500 jobs would have been created.
The EPA, however, had other plans. It withheld a vital permit needed to start the project on schedule.
Manchin's fury was vented in a release:
“As a West Virginian, I watched this project come together one partnership at a time for the past two decades,” Senator Manchin said. “As Governor, I made sure that the state supported the project’s permitting and funding requests. Now, as Senator, I am incensed and infuriated that the EPA would intentionally delay the needed permit for a public-private project that would bring so many good jobs and valuable infrastructure to communities that so desperately need them. The EPA has lost court case after court case for its overreach, and it should be using better judgment by now. I vow to work with the Governor’s office, our entire Congressional delegation and members of both parties to make sure that this vital project will move forward.
“Rather than fight this project, the EPA should be embracing it as a model of how to work together,” Senator Manchin continued. “We’ll put the land to good use after it has been mined by building the King Coal Highway. We’ll build a wastewater treatment plant that will clean up millions of gallons of water for people in the Pigeon Creek Watershed – eliminating raw sewage and other pollutants. Not only will we be protecting the jobs of the 145 people working at this project, we’ll be putting hundreds more people to work with good-paying jobs. The EPA’s callousness jeopardized the funding for all these projects. In short, this project is a win-win and the EPA is trying to make it a loser.”
Outrage over the stoppage of this project is a bipartisan affair in West Virginia. Manchin and his opponent, John Raese have both taken aim at the EPA, as has Senator Jay Rockefeller (D), and Representatives Capito, McKinley (both R), and Rahall (D). Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and his opponent Bill Maloney also support the project.
This comes on the same day as the release of a Cato Institute study that found that the EPA did not include important scientific research into its assessment of fossil fuels and climate change.
Cato scholar Patrick J. Michaels said:
"After thorough review, I found that the report from the U.S Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which served as the source for the scientific opinions underlying the original endangerment finding in 2009, is unrepresentative of the larger body of scientific research on the topic of anthropogenic climate change and its potential impacts on the United States," said Cato Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels. "Since the new EPA standards would essentially price anyone trying to build a new coal plant out of the market, I am not surprised that we won't see final regulations on carbon dioxide until after the election."
While supporters of the EPA deny that there is a War on Coal, these actions and studies show otherwise. The EPA engages in psychological warfare of releasing selected information while using its power to obstruct jobs creating projects.
Mingo County, West Virginia's unemployment rate was at, as of last August, at an even 10 percent. That had ticked up almost half of a point since the year before. Elected leaders from West Virginia worked with CONSOL Energy to come up with a plan that would allow coal mining to take place along the route of a planned expressway. The King Coal Highway project would have taken a public project and used it for maximum private use.
Senator Joe Manchin's office and CONSOL estimated that up to 2,500 jobs would have been created.
The EPA, however, had other plans. It withheld a vital permit needed to start the project on schedule.
Manchin's fury was vented in a release:
“As a West Virginian, I watched this project come together one partnership at a time for the past two decades,” Senator Manchin said. “As Governor, I made sure that the state supported the project’s permitting and funding requests. Now, as Senator, I am incensed and infuriated that the EPA would intentionally delay the needed permit for a public-private project that would bring so many good jobs and valuable infrastructure to communities that so desperately need them. The EPA has lost court case after court case for its overreach, and it should be using better judgment by now. I vow to work with the Governor’s office, our entire Congressional delegation and members of both parties to make sure that this vital project will move forward.
“Rather than fight this project, the EPA should be embracing it as a model of how to work together,” Senator Manchin continued. “We’ll put the land to good use after it has been mined by building the King Coal Highway. We’ll build a wastewater treatment plant that will clean up millions of gallons of water for people in the Pigeon Creek Watershed – eliminating raw sewage and other pollutants. Not only will we be protecting the jobs of the 145 people working at this project, we’ll be putting hundreds more people to work with good-paying jobs. The EPA’s callousness jeopardized the funding for all these projects. In short, this project is a win-win and the EPA is trying to make it a loser.”
Outrage over the stoppage of this project is a bipartisan affair in West Virginia. Manchin and his opponent, John Raese have both taken aim at the EPA, as has Senator Jay Rockefeller (D), and Representatives Capito, McKinley (both R), and Rahall (D). Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and his opponent Bill Maloney also support the project.
This comes on the same day as the release of a Cato Institute study that found that the EPA did not include important scientific research into its assessment of fossil fuels and climate change.
Cato scholar Patrick J. Michaels said:
"After thorough review, I found that the report from the U.S Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which served as the source for the scientific opinions underlying the original endangerment finding in 2009, is unrepresentative of the larger body of scientific research on the topic of anthropogenic climate change and its potential impacts on the United States," said Cato Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels. "Since the new EPA standards would essentially price anyone trying to build a new coal plant out of the market, I am not surprised that we won't see final regulations on carbon dioxide until after the election."
While supporters of the EPA deny that there is a War on Coal, these actions and studies show otherwise. The EPA engages in psychological warfare of releasing selected information while using its power to obstruct jobs creating projects.
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Monday, October 29, 2012
Protecting Confidential Communications As Property
How confidential are private confidential communications when conducted electronically? The United States Supreme Court will soon address this question.
The case of Clapper vs Amnesty International USA centers around private conversations that take place electronically. Lawyers fear that powers granted to the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could unintentionally grant access to protected lawyer-client communications. The ultrasecret court set up to handle such cases is supposed to ensure that abuses do not happen. Since, however, there is no public oversight of this court, lawyers opposed to the statute argue that it is difficult to hold it to account.
SCOTUSblog speculated that the line of questioning followed by Justice Anthony Kennedy might indicate that he favors stronger limits on the government. He seems concerned that defense lawyers may be harmed by the program already.
Cato Institute writers expanded upon this reasoning by stating:
In Clapper v. Amnesty International, the Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Inc., the U.S. Justice Foundation, the Downsize D.C. Foundation, DownsizeDC.org, and the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund have argued that the Court should recognize a property interest in confidential communications. Doing so would more clearly establish the standing of the respondents in this case to challenge the global wiretapping program Congress established in the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
William J. Olson, lead counsel on the brief, articulated the issues well in an email distributing it:
I
The case of Clapper vs Amnesty International USA centers around private conversations that take place electronically. Lawyers fear that powers granted to the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could unintentionally grant access to protected lawyer-client communications. The ultrasecret court set up to handle such cases is supposed to ensure that abuses do not happen. Since, however, there is no public oversight of this court, lawyers opposed to the statute argue that it is difficult to hold it to account.
SCOTUSblog speculated that the line of questioning followed by Justice Anthony Kennedy might indicate that he favors stronger limits on the government. He seems concerned that defense lawyers may be harmed by the program already.
Cato Institute writers expanded upon this reasoning by stating:
In Clapper v. Amnesty International, the Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Inc., the U.S. Justice Foundation, the Downsize D.C. Foundation, DownsizeDC.org, and the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund have argued that the Court should recognize a property interest in confidential communications. Doing so would more clearly establish the standing of the respondents in this case to challenge the global wiretapping program Congress established in the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
William J. Olson, lead counsel on the brief, articulated the issues well in an email distributing it:
Our amicus brief in the Clapper case extrapolates from the court’s holding in Jones and identifies the property interests at stake in this case as confidential communications that are critical to the practice of law and of the enterprise of journalism. Using a property analysis, the citizens in Clapper have a protectable property interest in their electronic communications as they do in their written communications. Thus, even though plaintiffs are not “targeted” by the Government, the Government’s contention that their search and seizure of plaintiffs’ communications is only “incidental” is unavailing.If the court does as FISA's opponents suggest, this would represent a very strong barrier between the government and its use of electronic surveillance without warrants.
I
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