In the beginning there was an election and the people spoke…they wanted change……
During the election in ’08 Obama wanted to be known as the education president and the environmental president and so far the environmental thing is not going so well….The Congressional Repubs are and will continue to fight the Dems and the President at every turn and will make the cap and trade thing the corner stone of the opposition.
One of this country, as well as the rest of the world, biggest problems is air pollution…..it has been blamed for everything from asthma to lung cancer to global warming or climate change, whichever you choose to use, and the whole cap and trade thing is an attempt to make corporations more environmentally responsible….the President has weighed in and the Dems are trying to make the environment more clean….
Are they?
In a piece written by Hiram Lee for wsws.org:
Up to 130 million tons of coal ash, the waste product created during coal combustion, are produced each year in the US, with approximately 40 percent of it going for use in other products such as asphalt or concrete. Sixty percent of the ash is stored in landfills or ash “ponds” throughout the country.
Exposure to coal ash through contaminated water supplies presents a significant health risk. The waste product contains toxic contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, lead and barium, which can lead to cancer, birth defects or disorders of the nervous system. There are currently no uniform, federal standards in place governing the building or maintenance of coal ash containment facilities.
In addition to treating coal ash as toxic waste in its proposal, the EPA has also named three industries—chemical manufacturing; petroleum and coal products manufacturing; and the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution industry—that could potentially face financial responsibility requirements under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Should CERCLA be amended to include these industries, it would force the companies involved to be financially responsible for the cleanup of any environmental contamination they may have caused.
The role of the Obama administration has been to prevent the EPA proposal from moving forward, acting on behalf of the coal and energy companies. Should the proposal be allowed to go through, it will only be after the administration has worked with the energy conglomerates to revise it in such as way as to arrange the most favorable financial conditions possible for the companies.
It seems that the Obama Admin is using the same tactic it used with the banks…..allow nothing to interfere with corporate profit…and that includes the environment….it will virtually impossible to be the environmental president when working hard against any reasonable attempts to curb air pollution….I am looking forward to see how they, Obama Admin, try and spin this situation…..that is assuming that it will get some press…..
UPDATE: What happened to “green” technologies? You remember those? Wind…..solar….do-dah….but his, Pres. Obama, big deal is a guaranteed loan from a nuke plant….and in the same breath….they announce the closing of Yucca Mtn which is where spent fuel would be stored…..just asking!
Good post, though I’m not sure what you or anyone else expected…
When you put together the automatic opposition between the parties to anything the other wants to do regardless of obvious desirability, with the desperate need of all American industries to begin to flourish again, virtually any price and the VAST chasm that separates public belief, desires and demand from ANY known form of reality… well, there isn’t a great deal of hope, is there?
Thanx…..well I posted it to show that all the political rhetoric during the campaign was just that—rhetoric. I truly enjoy pointing out that despite all the hope for change….nothing is changing….I guess I need to try and make some sense of the “new” form of political thought….Contrary-ism….oh crap! Another brain tease, since I am having a helluva time with the idea of a “co-op government”……
Yeah, I know. I think much of the current deviousness has (as I pointed out in my last post) developed because the electorate is TOTALLY unrealistic. They are very badly educated, particularly in the area of reality, and the corporations have undoubtedly encouraged that because it has helped to push politicians away from decency and towards practicality.
That’s like “what the public wants is ridiculous and impossible, so we’ll just say whatever they want to hear and then go line our pockets because there’s f*ck all else we can do of a practical nature anyway”
To some extent at least, I don’t blame them. Indeed, what else CAN they do some of the time at least? The public so often behaves in a manner that utterly stupid, lazy and unrealistic and they frequently DO get exactly the government they truly deserve!
When the public, en mass, understands that living within your means is the ONLY way to get out from under the tyranny of the corporations and the banks and that this CAN mean going without something until you can actually afford to pay for it – THEN and only THEN will we start to get responsible government by responsible people.
As we have talked about in the past….education is the best answer….not a retention course so that the kids can pass tests but rather a real education……and that would include a basic knowledge of economics….something NOT taught in my state…once they learn the basics then they would understand the whole country thing……
Children have a great capacity to learn (let’s face it, a young human has a lot TO learn in just a short while). Babies have an ENORMOUS capacity…
Yet the thing we continuoisly hear from parents in our soft, flabby and all too frequently stupid West is, “Oh, he’s (she’s) too young for all that. There’ll be plenty of time when he’s (she’s) older for that.”
Bullshit! How wrong can they BE? In general, ALL children should be allowed to learn ALL subjects from as soon as you and they can communicate and they show any interest. It’s not a question of forcing subjects on them, but their questions should be seriously and honestly answered truthfully and without prevarication and they should NOT be shielded from the realities of life, at least on a basic level. It’s only the DETAIL of information that is provided that should be kept to the level they can undertand.
Telling young children that babies are found under goosberry bushes or even allowing them to think that money somehow grows on trees are equally irresponsible lies and frequently downright stupid!
This is a great comment for one of today’s posts on education……BTW, I agree completely with you……our children are NOT getting a complete education they are basically be taught to pass a test, not learn the subject…
Sadly, I agree completely, but when you try to control things by legislation, you can only guage the results by targets and tests.
THAT’S the problem with legislation and its resultant bureaucracy – they are almost always utterly self defeating and a complete waste of time and money that would be much better spent in other ways – which is why I feel the way I do about them in pretty much ALL walks of life. 🙁
Thanks! This is probably the most complete info I have found on this subject on the net. Would you think about hosting guest posts from others?
Glad you like the site and the info…..it is up to the editors to decide what is posted…….