Thanks to Pat Slattery of The Free Market Project, I learned that Hot Air was running this story of the EPA imposing carbon emission limits on coal-fired electrical power plants. I then found that Fox News was carrying the same story.
Our first ever Marxist president couldn’t get Congress to pass his Cap and Trade bill when he had control of both houses of congress isn’t going to let that stop him. Obama has said recently that if Congress won’t act, he’ll have to go it alone and that is what he is doing. Obama don’t need no Congress and he don’t need no federal judges and he damn sure don’t need no constitution.
If you don’t like higher and higher gasoline prices, you are probably are not going to like the higher cost of electricity, which is on the way thanks to our rogue President and his rogue EPA. Hot Air quoting from a Washington Post article has this to say:
The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.
[…]
Industry officials and environmentalists said in interviews that the rule, which comes on the heels of tough new requirements that the Obama administration imposed on mercury emissions and cross-state pollution from utilities within the past year, dooms any proposal to build a coal-fired plant that does not have costly carbon controls.
But, if coal-fired is so bad, they can convert to natural gas, right ? That’s cheap and clean, right? Yes, but Hot Air also informs us:
This leads us to the natural-gas option mentioned by the Post. The response might be, “Well, okay, Obama’s bankrupting the coal industry, but we can still use natural gas.” That’s only true if we can get the natural gas. The EPA has also begun blocking the use of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, which allows for massive improvement in extraction and access to vast amounts of natural gas. Note well that Obama included natural gas among those sources to which his policies would be hostile, and so far he’s proving it.
Does the Obama have the power to do this? He does if he takes it and no one stops him. The Fox News link has this quote from Senator James Inhofe
At a time when the Obama administration should be working to lower the price of gas at the pump, it is alarming that they have put forward more global warming regulations,” said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate environment panel, who pledged on Tuesday to introduce a resolution to overturn the rule. “Republicans are committed to ensuring that the Obama EPA is finally reined in.”
The Republicans are committed to reining in Obama? Really? There is an expression here in Venezuela that translates: “It’s time for Congress to take off their skirts and put on their pants”. It didn’t happen here and I doubt it will happen in the US either.
But, what about the power of the purse? We conservatives love to rant about the power of the purse. Does the power of the purse work? According to Wikipedia there are several examples in recent times where congress has successfully used its power of the purse. Until Obama, no president has ever violated the constitutional power of the purse reserved to Congress. Democrats would say that President Reagan disobeyed the prohibition of Congress to spend money supporting the Contras. But, that is not true. What Reagan did may have been deceitful; but Reagan spent money from the illegal sale of arms to Iran on the Contra and not funds prohibited by Congress. Obama on the other hand. When he received a bill prohibiting him from spending funds on his czars, he merely wrote a signing order explaining his interpretation of the separation of powers and blithely went about spending money appropriated for something else on his czars. Obama’s only constitutional option was to veto the bill based on his interpretation of the separation of powers. He does not have the constitutional authority to spend monies prohibited to him by Congress.
So, does Congress still have the power of the purse? Will our Republicans in congress try to use the power of the purse to rein in the EPA? Would Obama pay any attention to Congress if they did? Only if our Republicans take off their skirts and put on their pants. I’m not holding my breath.
Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
Asylum Watch 
And all of the Refineries are closing in Phila which will cause a big increase in gas prices in the Northeast. Coal is being shut down everywhere and he promised it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/01/five-coal-fueled-power-plants-to-close-due-to-obama-administration-regulation/
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/27/3131072/epa-to-reduce-new-power-plants.html
Yep! Our Dictator-in-Chief is fundamentally transforming America just like he promised he would.
To answer your last question…”Would Obama pay any attention to Congress if they did?” No. He is a loose cannon and a dictator and unless or until he is impeached for treasonous activities or voted out, no one is reining him in. Unbelievable. It’s not just the EPA either. It’s HUD, DOE, DOT and lots of other little underling bureaucracies all the way down the line.
Buy long johns and sweaters, down comforters, pot bellied stoves, etc. Europeans and Eastern former Soviet blocs were freezing to death this past winter. Batten down the hatches. Obama will land eventually in Hawaii with a cushy retirement and secret service while the rest of us get frostbite and lose our shirts.
One more term and Obama will destroy our economy even more and he will destroy our national defense. The man is a Marxist and it is time public was told so.
Disgusting, isn’t it? It’ll be a major job of a new president to clean up (ironically) the EPA and other bureaucracies. It’s funny that Obama appointed Czars, when the truth is that he wants to rule like one.
Let me ask something about this “power of the purse” argument. As I understand it, the power of the purse is the power to budget… to authorize spending on some things and limit the ability to spend on others. The budget is initiated by the House of Representatives, but has to be passed by both houses of congress and signed by the president. (In modern times it seems like the president’s budget proposal is used as the starting point, but actually it’s the House that initiates officially.) Because the budget (the authorization and limits on spending) has to be passed by both the Senate and the House and signed by the president, doesn’t this actually limit the “power of the purse” argument when you have a rogue Senate that refuses to even take up the issue and a President that is equally rogue and willing to spend willy-nilly with no actual budget passed? I don’t even understand how the hell they’re doing it. I suppose it’s through continuing resolutions, and the House could take a stand and say no to those. Couldn’t it?
The whole thing has gotten so out of whack and so far from what it’s supposed to be that it seems like we’re just flying by the seat of our pants now. That’s how a budget (the only one passed in Obama’s tenure in the White House) that was supposed to contain a one-off stimulus has become the baseline for three years of spending (with whopping trillion dollar deficits every year).
Eben in continuing resolutions, Congress can stipulate that no funds shall be spent on ______ and this president will ignore what Congress has said.
Me, too, Pat. I can’t figure out how they are getting funding for most of what they are doing. We have federal programs, grants and subsidies, coming into our state that just seem to keep on keeping on …and I keep asking myself, “Where is this money coming from?” Someone told me once not long ago to stop worrying because the money will dry up and they will quit funding the nonsense, but I don’t think so. They have the power to print, so the money just keeps coming out of those agencies run by czars. What is Congress doing about it? Of course, Obama is not going to sign a cut of any of his green programs anyway…so …we are all just sitting here wondering. Crazy…
John Hayward picks up the ball and runs with it today: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50485
Favorite quote today from one of my favorite writers (the aforementioned John Hayward–Doctor Zero): “Well, you see, it’s ‘all of the above’ except for coal. And oil. You can have any flavor of energy you want, provided it’s ‘green.’ Which means ‘fantastically expensive, controlled by a top Obama contributor, and doesn’t work very well.'”
I read that article. Great, as always with Hayward.
I heard that President Romney is going to call for a special White House press conference on January 21st with Kathleen Sebelius and Lisa Jackson as the only cabinet members present and fire them on the spot and in public.
You heard that, did you, John. I wonder where?
Hey! Wait!… Isn’t Sarah Palin the one “Going Rogue”??
There might be a little copyright infringement case against Obama and the EPA developing! Perhaps the Supreme Court should look into this to. 😉
I think SCOTUS is in on it.
I left you a comment on the Fed.
Barack Obama promised to bankrupt the coal industry and he is about to do just that. I don’t know what is worse; Obama ignoring the Congress or the Congress ignoring the fact that Obama is ignoring the Congress.
“don’t know what is worse; Obama ignoring the Congress or the Congress ignoring the fact that Obama is ignoring the Congress.”
Now there’s a question to tie one’s mind in knots. Good one, Steve!
A question for you.
If the EPA is regulating corporations/environment, and the EPA is controlled by our politicians, and our politicians who in turn write the legislation at the behest of lobbying corporations…who do you think is really regulating the environment?
Think about that for the FDA as well as any agency.
Crony corporatist jump in bed with the government helping to write regulations that their smaller competitors can afford.
Back in the 1870’s, Regulators were the gun thugs hired by the railroads to intimidate the people who refused to sell their land to the combine. It’s pretty much the same these days.
They dress nicer these days, Bob. That’s about the only difference.
“Will our Republicans in congress try to use the power of the purse to rein in the EPA?”
They should at least try, if nothing else the voters will see that they’re trying to stop this lunatic and see what he’s doing. obama is doing half the work for the republicans, it’s a wonder why they can’t seem to get it together to boot him high and far out of the White house.
They should stand up and at least demonstrate some evidence of having a back bone.
I read somewhere that America was a Republic with a government with limited powers. Must be nice. I’ll have to visit it one day.
@Infidel
I’m glad you recognize America as a Republic and not a Democracy. So many Americans make the mistake of calling America a Democracy. You know more about America than most Americans.
It will be one hell of a long trip, my friend.
We are in grave danger with this man in the white house. We are blessed with an abundance of natural resources, and Obama’s EPA jackboots thwart their use at every turn
They have a different agenda, don’t they?