Health care, global warming impede budget deal

From Andy Sullivan of Reuters on March 25:

Healthcare, global warming, birth control and other hot-button political issues are threatening to derail a compromise over U.S. spending cuts, lawmakers and aides said on Friday.

The dispute again raises the possibility of a government shutdown that would force thousands of layoffs and rattle financial markets, even as Republican and Democratic negotiators began to bridge a $50 billion gap between their rival spending plans.

Aides said the closed-door talks were initially productive. But leaders from both parties later issued sharply worded statements that any shutdown would be the fault of the other.

"The status quo is unacceptable, and right now that is all Washington Democrats are offering," said House Speaker John Boehner.

"The House Republican leadership is back to agonizing over whether to give in to right-wing demands that they abandon any compromise on their extreme cuts," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said.

The White House budget office said the House plan raised "extreme social policy issues that have nothing at all to do with reducing spending or reducing the deficit" while cutting research and education spending needed for economic growth.

"The President said he would veto the bill if it got to him in this form, and we need to work together to find a reasonable compromise," said Meg Reilly, a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget.

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Immigration bills rile farmers

From Cameron McWhirter and Jennifer Levitz of The Wall Street Journal on March 25:

ROBERTA, Ga.—Arizona-style immigration bills are under attack in several states, with some of the strongest opposition to the proposals coming from agricultural interests like the cotton and peach farmers here in central Georgia.

Farmers in states from Florida to Indiana are pressuring — and in some cases persuading — state politicians to rethink proposed legislation that would authorize crackdowns on illegal immigration. They argue that the legislation will drive Mexican workers out of their states, and that there aren't enough American workers willing to pick crops. They want legislation at the federal level, which wouldn't favor one state over another.

At least 25 states are weighing proposals to crack down on illegal immigration and employers who hire them, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Arizona law allows police to check the immigration status of people they stop, and establishes stiff penalties for businesses or individuals who hire illegal immigrants.

"Nobody wants illegal immigrants, but when you get down to the reality of the situation, farmers have to have workers to do the job," said Al Pearson, a peach and pecan farmer in Roberta. He said he hires only federally approved guest laborers to work his 3,600-acre farm, paying them $9.11 an hour plus benefits.

But the current federal system, involving approvals from multiple agencies, is slow and can't process enough legal workers for the state's large agricultural industry, he said. A bureaucratic glitch held up approvals for 100 Mexican workers for two weeks in February, setting back his tree pruning and other preparations for peach-picking season. "It frightened me because I didn't have a plan B. I don't have domestic workers," he said.

"There is no farm in this county that could continue without Mexican labor," said Robert Ray, a Crawford County farmer who for years led the agriculture committee in the Georgia House.

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Action Alert: beach clean-up with Allen West

What: Help pick up trash and keep our beach barefoot-friendly with Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.

Trash bags and gloves are provided, and c

ommunity service hours are available for high school students.

Afterwards, relax or picnic by the beach, or scuba dive.

When: March 26 at 10 a.m.

Where: Pompano Beach, on the north side of the Pompano Pier.

For more information: Call (877) 806-2010. To register for the dive, contact the Force-E Dive Center at (866) 943-3489. Dive space is limited.

Judge holds Interior Department in contempt

From Dan Berman of Politico on Feb. 2:

A federal judge in Louisiana held the Interior Department in contempt late Wednesday, citing the agency for “dismissive conduct” by blocking offshore oil drilling during last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana last summer blocked the Obama administration’s first attempt to place a moratorium on offshore drilling, only to have Interior come back with a second ban.

That didn’t go over well with Feldman, who Wednesday also ordered Interior to pay attorneys’ fees for oil companies challenging the drilling ban.

“Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the reimposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this Court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt of this Court’s preliminary injunction order,” Feldman wrote in his eight-page order.

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The Real Green Hornet

Holder promises to protect minority areas from environmental hazards

From Andrew Restuccia of The Hill on Jan. 14:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pledged Friday to work to protect low-income minority communities from environmental hazards.

Low-income communities have for decades borne the brunt of the country’s environmental problems. Studies show that toxic waste sites are almost always built near poor communities that often don’t have the resources to protect themselves.

In remarks commemorating Martin Luther King Day, Holder, the country’s first black attorney general, said the Justice Department will work aggressively to enforce environmental laws to protect vulnerable communities.

“This is unacceptable and it is unconscionable,” Holder said. “But through the aggressive enforcement of federal environmental laws in every community, I believe we can — and I know we must — change the status quo."

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Obama administration proposes protection for Everglades headwaters

From David Fleshler and Andy Reid of the Sun-Sentinel on Jan. 7:

The Obama administration on Friday proposed protecting a vast mosaic of wilderness, streams, lakes and ranchlands north of Lake Okeechobee. The initiative is intended to guard the water sources of the Everglades and prevent development in a landscape that recalls a Florida before Disney, condominiums and interstate highways.

The $700 million proposal — which lacks specifics on funding and the exact locations of land to be protected — calls for buying about 50,000 acres for a new national wildlife refuge and protecting another 100,000 acres through agreements with landowners and other means.

The proposal describes the areas as "one of the great grassland and savanna landscapes of eastern North America," providing habitat for the Florida panther, black bear, Florida scrub-jay, Everglades snail kite, red-cockaded woodpecker and many other species.

The region also serves as the headwaters for the Florida Everglades, gathering water that flows slowly south through the Everglades to the coast. Among the Everglades' knottiest problems is the pollution washing off farms and cities from fertilizers, particularly phosphorus.

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Republican appropriator takes quick aim at ‘scary’ EPA and 'its bloated budget'

From Ben Geman of The Hill on Jan. 7:

The newly announced chairman of the House panel that crafts Environmental Protection Agency spending bills signaled Friday that he will seek to scale back the agency’s regulatory powers.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) is chairman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee of the full Appropriations Committee. He was the ranking GOP member of the panel in the last Congress.

Simpson’s office, in a statement, said he will be “tasked with reducing spending levels that have grown out of control in recent years under Democrat control,” and that Simpson has his “eyes set on EPA” in particular.

“The EPA is the scariest agency in the federal government, an agency run amok,” Simpson said in a statement Friday.

“Its bloated budget has allowed it to drastically expand its regulatory authority in a way that is hurting our economy and pushing an unwelcomed government further into the lives of Idahoans. As Chairman of this subcommittee, I look forward to bringing some common sense to the EPA and some certainty for our nation’s job creators,” he added.

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Wilderness policy sparks western ire

From The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 30:

An Obama administration directive designed to preserve more public lands as wilderness is stirring anger in the West, where ranchers, sportsmen and energy companies say they could lose access to acreage they count on for their recreation and livelihood.

The regulatory change, initiated this month, directs the Bureau of Land Management to survey its vast holdings stretching between Alaska, Arizona, California and Colorado, in search of unspoiled back country. The agency can then designate these tracts — potentially millions of acres — as "wild lands."

Protections will vary from site to site, but in general such lands will be shielded from activities that disrupt habitat or destroy the solitude of the wild, according to the Interior Department. That might mean banning oil drilling, uranium mining or cattle grazing in some areas. It also could mean restrictions on recreational activities, such as snowmobiling or biking.

"Americans love the wild places where they hunt, fish, hike and get away from it all, and they expect these lands to be protected wisely on their behalf," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in announcing the policy shift late last week.

But the move, which did not require legislative approval, has drawn a hostile response from many in the West. "This harms economic growth," said Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who takes over next month as chair of the House subcommittee on public lands. "The West is being abused."

House Republicans, who will hold the majority in the new Congress that arrives next week, say they plan hearings on the new policy and perhaps seek to cut funding to the BLM for identifying and managing wild lands.

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Well?

SUVs lead U.S. auto sales growth despite efforts to improve fuel efficiency

From Peter Whoriskey of The Washington Post on Dec. 29:

If U.S. consumers are in the midst of a green revolution, the news hasn't reached car buyers.

With the end of the recession, bigger vehicles have made a comeback, sales figures show, and it has come at the expense of smaller, more-efficient cars.

Leading the growth were sales of midsize sport-utility vehicles, which jumped 41 percent through the first 11 months of the year, led by vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Honda Pilot, each of which get about 18 miles per gallon.

Sales of small cars, by contrast, remained flat despite otherwise surging demand for automobiles. Sales of the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic declined, and even the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius, the hybrid darling of the eco-conscious, dropped 1.7 percent.

"You have about 5 percent of the market that is green and committed to fuel efficiency," said Mike Jackson, the chief executive of AutoNation, the largest auto retailer in the country. "But the other 95 percent will give up an extra 5 mpg in fuel economy for a better cup holder."

Overall, car and light-truck purchases climbed 12 percent from January to November, led by the consumer tilt toward SUVs and pickups, according to recent numbers from Autodata.

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White House plans to push global warming policy, GOP vows fight

From Kimberly Schwandt of FoxNews on Dec. 28:

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- After failing to get climate-change legislation through Congress, the Obama administration plans on pushing through its environmental policies through other means, and Republicans are ready to put up a fight.

On Jan. 2, new carbon emissions limits will be put forward as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares regulations that would force companies to get permits to release greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Critics say the new rules are a backdoor effort to enact the president's agenda on global warming without the support of Congress, and would hurt the economy and put jobs in jeopardy by forcing companies to pay for expensive new equipment.

"They are job killers. Regulations, period -- any kind of regulation is a weight on economy. It requires people to comply with the law, which takes work hours and time, which reduces the profitability of firms. Therefore, they grow more slowly and you create less jobs," said environmental scientist Ken Green of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Dan Howells of Greenpeace disagrees.

"I was looking at some advertisements from the 1970s where they were making the very same arguments about stopping acid rain. And that didn't turn out to be a job-killer. In fact, it created jobs in some places," said Howells, the environmental group's deputy campaign director. "The more we keep making these decades-old arguments, the more we won't be creating the jobs of the future and working towards the new energy economy."

The administration says it has the power to issue the regulation under a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that directed the agency to make a determination on whether carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, was a hazard to human health.

The agency is set to have a preliminary version of the rules in place by July and then issue final standards in 2012 after a public comment period.

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The church of global warming

President Obama under pressure to deliver on climate

From Robin Bravender of Politico on Dec. 27:

Jan. 2 isn’t just your ordinary Sunday.

It’s the day the Obama administration will officially start regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and critics have issued dire predictions of economic destruction.

With all the fiery rhetoric about how damaging the regulations could be, the White House is under pressure to fulfill its pledge to tackle climate change while avoiding the appearance that it’s hindering job growth.

GOP lawmakers have already launched a series of efforts to hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency — and that’s before the rules have even officially kicked in. Those efforts are expected to increase in frequency and in force in the next Congress as Republicans claim the House majority and industries continue to lobby furiously against the greenhouse gas regulations.

Incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) last week accused EPA of advancing a “long regulatory assault” against domestic energy producers. “The EPA has its foot firmly on the throat of our economic recovery,” he said. “We will not allow the administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate.”

Blasting the agency’s climate rules has become popular sport in both chambers of Congress and even among some Democrats.

Read more.