Bush Administration changes rules for older power plants and guess what?

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Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,059
73
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Tominator -- Calling me a liberal is a compliment. Thanks for noticing. OTOH, you are a self evidencing moron, but you really don't have to continue to prove it. We're already painfully aware of your total ignorance of the principles of chemistry, physics, and any other intellectual study of the way things really work in this universe.

I'm hardly against technology. I earn my living with it, and I hold patents in serious technology. However, once we discover that the technology of the present carries with it previously unknown hazards, only the terminally stupid would opt to continue along the same destructive path. Of course, those who would derive short term benefit from that path are glad to bribe the morons in power to continue in that direction, regardless of the consequenses to the rest of humanity.

You suffer from a medical condition known as Anal-Crainial Inversion. To put it terms a numb nutz like you would understand, I'll paraphrase the title of a hit country song... Don't It Make Your Blue Eyes Brown?

And before you go whining about me attacking you, read your last post. :disgust:
 
Oct 16, 1999
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Originally posted by: Lucky
Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
It's really irrelevant if this means more harm to the environment or not, what is relevant here is that Bush is giving his buddies a break.


LMAO...so even if this decreases emissions, it wouldn't matter to you enviromentalists. The objective has shifted from true concern of the environment to political power.

I'm not an environmentalist, there are enough people worrying about that, I am just worried about this administration and what it is doing.
 

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
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Sometimes you have to step down to a liberals mind set to get your point across.

Harvey continues to spout his liberal brand of hate with very few reasons given.

When I call someone something, I have reasons. I'm not blind and DO NOT just sit back and insinuate like most liberals do. I can explain my views and have done so many times WITHOUT using the asinine tactics Harvey uses!

People like him evidently want us all to live in caves and in his mind humans are no doubt the vermin of the earth. Besides that, he can't spell worth a damn!

BTW, did you know that coal fired power plants are already the number one contributor of particulate contamination of our air -- even more than cars, trucks, etc.? Did you know this causes thousands of premature deaths every year? Are you curious how many lives Christine Todd Whitman was willing to sell out for more bucks from the power lobby?

We have cut back our coal fired plants devestating local economies in the process! Without coal we would be importing a huge percentage of our energy! Premature deaths? You mean like a few million abortions? And then he has the gaul to accuse someone of selling out!



Hmmm.... Isn't that the same dispicable bunch that met with Prick Cheyney behind closed doors when they were figuring out how to rape the rest of us with relaxed environmental regulations? I mean, why should he give a sh8? He can pick up more millions in bribes... err... campaing funding, but with that bum ticker of his, he won't be around long enough to see all the sick, dying and dead kids in ten or twenty years as a result of the added polution.

Relaxed regulations just might be the incentive to invest in cleaner energy!

Typical liberal scan artist using scare tactics and unfounded allegations....typical and idiotic!
 

KMurphy

Golden Member
May 16, 2000
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Harvey,

Can you state your position on "nukular" power? That is the least polluting / most economical method of mass energy production; if handled properly, that currently exists. Next is coal, then natural gas, then hydroelectric. The other energy production methods dejour are really not feasible to supply the masses on a KW/sq.ft. scale. What say you?

I know you have electronics patents, so you are a subscriber to the Coulomb.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,059
73
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Originally posted by: Beast1284
If the air pollution doesn't kill you, something else is going to. YAWN.
That doesn't mean you have to encourage it or volunteer for it.
rolleye.gif

 

Pastore

Diamond Member
Feb 9, 2000
9,728
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Originally posted by: Harvey
Originally posted by: Beast1284
If the air pollution doesn't kill you, something else is going to. YAWN.
That doesn't mean you have to encourage it or volunteer for it.
rolleye.gif

Who said I was? Don't put words in my mouth. I am just indifferent on the situation.
 

etech

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Analysis of the Environmental Impact of the 2002 New Source Review (NSR) Improvement Final Rules
For more than 10 years now, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been engaged in an effort to improve the New Source Review (NSR) program in response to widespread concerns from stakeholders who are concerned that it is too complex and burdensome, it introduces uncertainty in planning, it inhibits industry?s ability to quickly make needed changes, and it is not working as effectively as it could be to protect air quality. In 1996, after an extensive stakeholder process, EPA proposed a series of reforms1 targeted at addressing stakeholder concerns and improving the program. As announced on June 13, 2002, the EPA now intends to finalize five key elements of the 1996 proposal: (1) Plantwide Applicability Limits (PALs), (2) the Clean Unit Test, (3) the Pollution Control Project Exclusion, (4) the revised baseline for determining pre-change emissions, and (5) the actual-to-projected-actual test. These reforms are aimed at providing much needed flexibility and regulatory certainty, and at removing barriers and creating incentives for sources to improve environmental performance through emissions reductions, pollution prevention, and improved energy efficiency. This document assumes that the reader already has some familiarity with the NSR program and with the terminology used in these five reforms, which are introduced in 1996 proposal and described
fully in the final NSR Improvement rule.2
......
Because of these and other difficulties, it is very difficult to model the likely changes in emissions or air quality that will occur as a result of NSR Improvement, and thus, to carry forward a health analysis of these changes. However, as EPA has stated on numerous occasions, we believe that the NSR Improvement rules are likely to result in environmental benefits. This conclusion is based on a thorough review of the rulemaking record, and is based on our past
experience with how sources respond to various NSR provisions, our ability to predict how they might respond in the future to specific changes in these provisions, and our assessment of the environmental changes likely to result. This assessment is qualitative, not quantitative. Nonetheless, the EPA understands that, where available, quantitative information can provide a useful supplement to these conclusions. For that reason, we are supplying the information contained in this report.
----------

The changes were proposed over 10 years ago. The old regulations had many problems associated with them. It will be difficult to quantify any change in pollution due to the new regulations however the EPA believes the new changes are likely to result in environmental benefits.
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
13,530
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Originally posted by: Lucky
But do the new rules allow for more polllution than the old rules? Answer: yes.

Interesting. Can anyone confirm this?
Remember the devil is in the details. Really, the only proof provided so far of the argument in favor of these changes is the EPA's word and one small quote in the MSN article:
facilities would get "greater flexibility" to modernize their operations without a New Resource Review as long as they don?t increase pollution and agree to emission caps that will be worked out in the future.
(Emphasis added)

Now why are so many people sceptical? Because this administration has time and time again weakened environmental regulations, virtually declaring open war on the environmental lobby. As another example of the type of activities Bush's EPA is allowing are strip mining operations in W. Virginia where the mining companies basically cleave off whole mountaintops and dump the dirt into tributaries. While such dumping is in violation of the Clean Water Act, the Bush administration has promoted business interests above common sense water pollution prevention.

The Bush administration feels that it's simply enough to say, "the free market could lead to some companies making wiser environmental decisions so just trust us". We pretty much know from history that this is generally far too optimistic; for example auto makers are pretty much compelled to meet federal fuel economy and emissions standards against their consistent opposition. At the end of the day, public corporations minimize cost to attempt to maximize profit; most aren't going to voluntarily clean up their plants at company cost without government encouragement.

You could easily pull other non-opinion quotes from that MSN article that say standards are being loosened for the worse:
  • Exempt a facility from updating pollution controls if there has already been a government review of existing ones within the past 10 years.
  • In a related action, the EPA also announced a proposed rule to define routine maintenance in terms of cost. Projects costing less than a specified "allowance" would be labeled routine maintenance under one proposed option. The Clinton administration had set a tougher definition that cracked down on power plants it felt were evading the New Source Review by framing major changes as routine maintenance.
In other words, if the EPA decides to set routine maintenance below $10 billion (as a contrived example), then any good intentions are all for naught.

Only time will tell which side is more correct, but the administration has a clear bias in making most of its environmental decisions.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,953
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Of course, one of his objectives is to ruin the environment before he is out of office. My hopes of gasoline going up to $4/gallon will never happen under him. By the time he is out of office in two years (if the idiot voters don't vote him back in), a few things will happen.

The world will be more polluted
We will add 2 more trillian to the national debt
Poor and middle class people will be poorer
More citizens will have guns
More chlorocarbons (sp) in the air will cause more lung cancer cases

But this is ok with 60% of the nation and they will vote him back in because of their ignorance.
 

Grasshopper27

Banned
Sep 11, 2002
7,013
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I have not read anything past the first few posts...

Here is a summary of this entire thread:

Guy #1 - Bush sucks!
Guy #2 - Bush rocks!
Guy #3 - You're both wrong!

Lather, rinse, repeat...

:D

Grasshopper
 

PsychoAndy

Lifer
Dec 31, 2000
10,735
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Originally posted by: Staples
Of course, one of his objectives is to ruin the environment before he is out of office. My hopes of gasoline going up to $4/gallon will never happen under him. By the time he is out of office in two years (if the idiot voters don't vote him back in), a few things will happen.

The world will be more polluted
We will add 2 more trillian to the national debt
Poor and middle class people will be poorer
More citizens will have guns

But this is ok with 60% of the nation and they will vote him back in because of their ignorance.

Sign you're on the computer too much. You confuse Trillion with trillian.

-PAB
 

Pastore

Diamond Member
Feb 9, 2000
9,728
0
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Originally posted by: Staples
Of course, one of his objectives is to ruin the environment before he is out of office. My hopes of gasoline going up to $4/gallon will never happen under him. By the time he is out of office in two years (if the idiot voters don't vote him back in), a few things will happen.

The world will be more polluted
We will add 2 more trillian to the national debt
Poor and middle class people will be poorer
More citizens will have guns

But this is ok with 60% of the nation and they will vote him back in because of their ignorance.

Nothing he could possibly do could ruin the environment more than we have in the past 70 years. You are barking up the wrong tree.
 

KMurphy

Golden Member
May 16, 2000
1,014
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The world will be more polluted
Regardless of who's in office.
We will add 2 more trillian to the national debt
Could you please show how you arrived at that figure?
Poor and middle class people will be poorer
By what measure? Gimme Gimme - ant / grasshopper
rolleye.gif

More citizens will have guns
To arm ourselves against the criminals liberals let out of prison.
More chlorocarbons (sp) in the air will cause more lung cancer cases
Don't even really know what your affraid of. How sad that you let the media determine your self worth. Did you know the video propoganda news stations show as pollution emissions is really just steam?

But this is ok with 60% of the nation and they will vote him back in because of their ignorance.
As long as it keeps the whiney "blame someone else for my problems" democrats out of office, that's just fine.

In the future, please either come up with solutions to our problems or STFU.

 

Piano Man

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2000
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Originally posted by: Lucky
Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
It's really irrelevant if this means more harm to the environment or not, what is relevant here is that Bush is giving his buddies a break.


LMAO...so even if this decreases emissions, it wouldn't matter to you enviromentalists. The objective has shifted from true concern of the environment to political power.


Sorry Lucky, but you are missing the point. The point isn't that the new rules won't decrease emissions, its that they won't decrease them as much as they would have if they left the NSR alone. The concern is always the environment with me.
 

Piano Man

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2000
3,370
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Originally posted by: Lucky


Sadly doesn't provide any arguments backed by fact, just rhetoric.



According to the MSNBC article, this link is misleading. The only factual claims they can make are based on this:


"Once enacted, the new policies announced today would broadly exempt these old, high-polluting industrial sources from the requirement to modernize their pollution controls, even when they significantly increase air pollution in surrounding neighborhoods and communities."


According to the MSNBC article, its quite the opposite:


"facilities would get ?greater flexibility? to modernize their operations without a New Resource Review as long as they don?t increase pollution "




Again, just rhetoric. No facts or explanations to support their claims.



A subsequent comment period drew comments from 130,000 concerned citizens opposing any move to weaken clean air rules


You mean folks misled by statements by the organization above? More rhetoric, no facts.



The proposed regulation changes would allow utilities to upgrade and even replace their dirtiest plants and increase emissions without installing pollution control equipment


Again, this directly contradicts with the EPA and the MSNBC article.

I'm starting to see a pattern here.........


sheesh, me too. A bunch of organizations and idiots parroting each other making outrageous claims without backing anything up.




BTW, even though I refer to that MSNBC article its terribly biased in my opinion. They devote twice as much space to oppenents of the changes than to those in favor of them, fail to mention these changes were proposed 6 years ago, and that crappy interactive graphic on the "state of our air" is laughable. Like every single one of those illnesses are directly caused by dirty air? How are diseases frequently associated with smokers relevant to how clean the overall air is?


**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
My post starts here:

Let me respond one article at a time:


American Lung Association: Here's a quote from this.
We can plainly see that allowing polluters to rely on such gimmicks as "predicted future actual emissions" and "emissions baselines" from ten years ago that public health will be threatened, not enhanced by these weakening changes.

While this might seem like rhetoric to the uninformed, I'll show you later why it is not.


As far as the Environmental Defense Organization, the only misleading is on part of the Administration. But I'll need the next example to prove it.


Natural Resources Defense Council:

Lets take a look at the MSNBC quote of yours.
Under the new rules, which do not require congressional approval, facilities would get ?greater flexibility? to modernize their operations without a New Resource Review as long as they don?t increase pollution and agree to emission caps that will be worked out in the future.

Ahh, yes. So as long as they don't increase pollution, we're okay. But how are they calculating the increase or decrease? This is where the article stops, and the NRDC begins. I don't believe you looked at the link at the bottom of the page of that site, so I'll give it to you know. Link. I hope this has enough "fact" for you. Here you see why these new rules are a crock of sh!t. Here is a quote:

To determine whether pollution increases, a company must compare its pollution before the change, known as its pollution "baseline," with pollution levels after the change. The administration's plan would allow a facility to pick a fictional pollution baseline that is worse than its actual pollution levels, essentially allowing the facility to pollute more and pretend it is not. This ruse would allow the facility to avoid cleaning up substantial pollution increases

Whoops, pretty damn clear to me. Basically, it allows the companies to not exactly lie, but to just not tell the truth. How convenient.

Next is the UPIRG: Once again, look above and you will see why its not a bunch of rhetoric.


Next is McGreevey. You say he contradicts MSNBC. He doesn't. MSNBC just doesn't tell the whole story. Look above once again to see the whole story. MSNBC makes a reference when it says:
The new rules also: Calculate emissions on a plant-wide basis rather than for individual pieces of equipment. Exempt a facility from updating pollution controls if there has already been a government review of existing ones within the past 10 years.

But MSNBC stops there. Why I don't know, but they do. As far as contradicting the EPA, well duh. Who runs the EPA?

As far as the other links, I don't whether they had too much fact, or that you already had your mind up that nothing new would come out of them. Anyways, I hope the explaination of the "emissions baseline" opens you to the possibility of foul play.
 

UltraQuiet

Banned
Sep 22, 2001
5,755
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Originally posted by: Harvey

You suffer from a medical condition known as Anal-Crainial Inversion.

LOL. Coming from a guy who's head is stuck so far up his own ass he can see his tonsils.
 

outriding

Diamond Member
Feb 20, 2002
4,619
4,097
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Originally posted by: Beast1284
If the air pollution doesn't kill you, something else is going to. YAWN.

i would rather get hit by a bus than go thru years of dealing with cancer

 

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
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Originally posted by: Harvey
Tominator -- Calling me a liberal is a compliment. Thanks for noticing. OTOH, you are a self evidencing moron, but you really don't have to continue to prove it. We're already painfully aware of your total ignorance of the principles of chemistry, physics, and any other intellectual study of the way things really work in this universe.

I'm hardly against technology. I earn my living with it, and I hold patents in serious technology. However, once we discover that the technology of the present carries with it previously unknown hazards, only the terminally stupid would opt to continue along the same destructive path. Of course, those who would derive short term benefit from that path are glad to bribe the morons in power to continue in that direction, regardless of the consequenses to the rest of humanity.

You suffer from a medical condition known as Anal-Crainial Inversion. To put it terms a numb nutz like you would understand, I'll paraphrase the title of a hit country song... Don't It Make Your Blue Eyes Brown?

And before you go whining about me attacking you, read your last post. :disgust:

Thanks for the comliment! You have yet to prove anyones ignorance in any thread you've ever posted in let alone my own.

Every technology carries unknown hazards. The problem with the so-called educated such as yourself is as stated previously,.

You and those like you have their heads up their asses! Self serving and guilty of everything they accuse others of doing.

No one but YOU could possibly understand anything. Afterall, you have the training, and like any Liberal will exclude any idea unless it closely matchces your own. Liberals think they have all the answers and what others think matters little.

I've never seen you offer one solution but you are quick to name call. You bash Bush and his administration continually. I guess if they can get you mad it must be the right thing to do!
 

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
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Originally posted by: Piano Man
Originally posted by: Lucky
Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
It's really irrelevant if this means more harm to the environment or not, what is relevant here is that Bush is giving his buddies a break.


LMAO...so even if this decreases emissions, it wouldn't matter to you enviromentalists. The objective has shifted from true concern of the environment to political power.


Sorry Lucky, but you are missing the point. The point isn't that the new rules won't decrease emissions, its that they won't decrease them as much as they would have if they left the NSR alone. The concern is always the environment with me.

Republicans do not want to destroy the environment as you think. We want smart legislation to control polution.
The current regulation is restrictive and has been keeping power plants because from doing upgrades, because it mandate all upgrades must be done if any are done. This makes any upgrade that increase effeciency too expensive to be done. The new ruling would allow incremental upgrades, which is very smart.


This ruling will be good for the environment.
 

markuskidd

Senior member
Sep 2, 2002
360
0
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I've never seen you offer one solution

I'll offer one... follow the EPAs guidelines and reduce those emissions. Follow the Kyoto agreement to reduce emissions.
Hey, that's two! Bonus points!

 

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
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Originally posted by: markuskidd
I've never seen you offer one solution

I'll offer one... follow the EPAs guidelines and reduce those emissions. Follow the Kyoto agreement to reduce emissions.
Hey, that's two! Bonus points!

NEGATIVE two points!

:D
 

LAUST

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2000
8,957
1
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Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
The solution to our electricity generation problem is nuclear power generators. But.........
I agree, to finish, but.... 95% of America is in "Rollover" state so they have been indoctrinated to think it's "Bad"