Fenger Pointing
Hide and seek at EPA

Becky Fenger | July 1, 2009

Becky Fenger"Waxman-Markey is a 1,201-page economic suicide note. Those Members of the House who vote for it are voting for long-term economic decline and for turning the United States into a second-rate economy." So wrote Myron Ebell, Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at the non-partisan Competitive Enterprise Institute. It is no exaggeration.

Unfortunately, this ill-conceived, onerous, scientifically-lacking Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill (H.R. 2454) narrowly passed the U.S. House last Friday. It appears that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson was able to keep the truth from Congress long enough to squeak through the "American Clean Energy and Security Act."

(Try not to spit out your coffee as you swallow the "Security" part of the title.) We'd better hope that U.S. Senators vote down this monstrosity after the July 4 break, or Americans could have a second round of fireworks.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) just made public an internal study on climate science that the EPA kept hidden and its author silenced. The report would have blown wide open any justification for passage of the Waxman-Markey "cap and tax" regulations on carbon dioxide. If Lisa Jackson were honest, lawmakers would have been told before the vote on Friday that new findings show that global temperatures are continuing to drop (that means global cooling, for you politicians east of the Mississippi) and consensus is forming that future hurricanes will not be more frequent or intense.

Now that the existence of the buried report is public knowledge, the good people at CEI are hoping that the EPA will be shamed into officially disclosing it themselves. I doubt it. The EPA is incapable of shame, from the days of Carol Browner and her unscientific methods to the making up of data in falsified studies.

These revelations will rile Al Gore, who in years past threatened the livelihoods of scientists who wouldn't rig their results to his purposes. Well, anything that prevents Al Gore from becoming the first Junk-Science billionaire will irritate him and tickle me. But damning internal e-mails at the EPA spilled the beans on the cover-up. Now hear this: Global temperatures have declined as C02 levels have increased! If our leaders would get over their love affair with United Nations' pronouncements, we Americans would have more money in our wallets.

All of us have washed our cars, only to be met the next day with a thunderstorm. Bad timing. But folks around Arizona are snickering at the terrible PR timing that befell the Goldwater Institute last Wednesday. On the very day that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was tearfully admitting in a press conference that he had indeed cheated on his wife with a lover in Argentina, there arrived in post office and computer e-mail boxes a heart-felt invitation.

Yes, as the radio and TV airwaves were filled with Gov. Sanford's mea culpa, a smiling Sanford – Mr. Family Values and chairman of the Republican Governors Association – was quoting Senator Barry Goldwater and beseeching addressees to join the Goldwater Institute. Bring on the rain.

Miscellaneous Observations:
Pound for pound, probably nothing produces more waste material than ducks and geese. That's why it's unfortunate that so many ducks have infested the lakes in McCormick Ranch that it's unsanitary for kids to play in the grass. Awww. A friend suggested that the Ranch should pay Buster's Restaurant to make roast duckling a house specialty. Eeeuu.
I'm so relieved that a sequel to the movie "Jackass" has been made. There aren't enough examples of stupid acts for us to witness.

The Cash for Clunkers is a $1 billion program just voted on by the U.S. Senate. In their infinite wisdom, U.S. Senators decided to spend money for this brilliant idea. If your auto rates a combined road/city average of 18 miles per gallon, you get cash from taxpayers to buy a new car that need get only 4 mpg better than the car you had! Senator Maria Cantwell changed her vote to keep this dog moving.

How thoughtful of President Nicolas Sarkozy to consider banning the wearing of a burka in France. Others feel that just because naked photos of his wife are strewn across Europe, he shouldn't try to uncover the rest of the females there.

Fengernails to ABC News for broadcasting a universal health care infomercial from the Blue Room of the White House. That's Yellow journalism, raw and exposed.