Senator Bernie Sanders: The 'Hoax'

[ProSense]

The 'Hoax'

by Senator Bernie Sanders

I support Gina McCarthy to be the next Environmental Protection Agency administrator. When her Senate confirmation hearing was held on Thursday, the debate among senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee wasn't really about her qualifications. It was about global warming. It was about whether or not we are going to listen to the leading scientists of this country who tell us we're facing a planetary crisis.

It was clear at the hearing that Senator John Barrasso, from coal-producing Wyoming, does not want the EPA to address the global warming crisis. What he wants is for us to continue doing as little as possible as we see extreme weather disturbances: super storms, floods and heat waves all over the world.

It was clear at the hearing that Senator Jim Inhofe, from oil-producing Oklahoma, does not want the EPA to curb climate change. What Senator Inhofe has written and talked about is his belief that global warming is one of the major hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people. He blames Al Gore, the United Nations, and the Hollywood elite. He didn't dispute that at the hearing. In fact, when I asked him about it, his conspiracy theory thickened. "I would add to that list MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore, and a few others," he said.

So that is the issue. Do we agree with Senator Inhofe that global warming is a "hoax" and that we do not want the EPA, the Department of Energy or any other agency of the federal government to address that issue? Or do we agree with the overwhelming majority of scientists who tell us that that we must act boldly and aggressively to protect the future of this planet?

That's the real issue at stake in this debate and that's the reason I'm supporting Gina McCarthy. That is why I want the EPA to be vigorous in protecting our children and future generations from the horrendous crisis that we face from global warming. That is why I have introduced legislation to tax carbon and methane greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded for the continental United States. More than 24,000 new record highs were set in the U.S. alone. It was the hottest year in recorded history in New York; Washington, DC; Louisville, Kentucky; even my home city of Burlington, Vt., and other cities across the country.

Last year's drought - affecting two-thirds of the United States - was the worst in half a century, contributing to extraordinary wildfires burning more than 9 million acres of land, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Heat waves and droughts are not limited to the U.S. Australia, for instance, experienced a four-month heat wave with severe wildfires, record temperatures, and torrential rains and floods causing $2.4 billion in damages, according to The New York Times.
Global warming is also resulting in extreme weather disturbances of all kinds. NOAA's Climate Extremes Index tracks extreme temperatures, drought, precipitation and tropical storms. It reported that 2012 set yet another distressing record for the most extreme climate conditions recorded.

Ronald Prinn, director of MIT's Center for Global Change Science, concluded that what we have heard recently from scientists is that their earlier projections regarding global warming were wrong. That in fact they underestimated the problem and that the conditions that they were worried about will likely be worse than what they had originally thought. "There is significantly more risk than we previously estimated ... [which] increases the urgency for significant policy action."

Global warming is real. It is not a hoax. It is a planetary crisis but one that we have the knowledge and technology to address.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/14/1201788/-The-Hoax

Sanders-Boxer climate protection bill includes carbon fee for nearly 3,000 top fossil fuel polluters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022374998







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[SidDithers]

1. DU Rec...nt

Sid

[ProSense]

2. Gina McCarthy

is going to have big shoes to fill

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Leaves a Legacy of Cleaner Air, Safer Water, and More Stable Climate

<...>

By honoring the law and protecting the health of ordinary people, Jackson showed us that sound government leadership makes our nation stronger and more vibrant. I am sorry to see her leave the Obama administration, but I know her accomplishments will live on in the form of cleaner air, safer drinking water, and a more stable climate.

The first-ever national standards to limit mercury and other dangerous emissions from power plants, for instance, will save up to 11,000 American lives every year. They will also prevent nearly 5,000 heart attacks annually and protect children from neurological damage. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that damages developing brains in children and fetuses, yet power plants have been resisting mercury rules for decades—even as every other major industrial sector in America already started reducing their mercury pollution. Jackson knew it was time for power plants to clean up their act, and she established strong standards that will finally prompt them to do so.

As the mother of a boy who suffers from asthma, Jackson has been a fierce champion of the Clean Air Act. But she has also pushed to make our nation’s waterways cleaner. She laid out the first comprehensive plan for saving the Chesapeake Bay from pollution that is literally choking the life out of the largest estuary in our country. She protected Appalachian streams from devastation by rejecting the Spruce No. 1 Mine—the largest mountaintop removal coal operation proposed in West Virginia—plan to dump rubble, coal dust, selenium, and other toxic pollution into the region’s waterways. And she worked tirelessly throughout the BP oil disaster to reassure Gulf residents that the administration would restore this national treasure.

But perhaps Jackson’s most far-reaching achievement is her leadership on climate change. She oversaw the EPA’s determination that carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and well-being. Following four decades of Clean Air Act precedent, the EPA used that determination as the basis to begin reducing carbon pollution.

- more -

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/epa_administrator_lisa_jackson.html

Lisa Jackson to Leave EPA: Earthjustice Statement

Statement from Earthjustice Vice President of Litigation Patti Goldman:

“America owes Lisa Jackson a debt of gratitude for her work to protect the public's health from polluters and their allies in Congress. For her efforts to clean up pollution and better protect the environment and public health, she faced a steady barrage from members of Congress and the industrial polluters who back them. Her detractors are the same people who told us taking lead out of gasoline in the 1970's would break the economy and that taking acid out of acid rain in the 1990's would ruin the country. In both cases, the environment and economy were strengthened and this is the approach Lisa Jackson took. There is a lot of unfinished business started by Jackson that the next EPA director will need to attend to. Whoever it is, they'll need the support of the President and they'll need to be ready for a non-stop barrage of attacks from the chemical, industrial and fossil fuel industries and their allies in Congress.

“After 17 years of Earthjustice litigation it was Lisa Jackson who finally regulated mercury and other toxic pollutants coming from power plants. After a decade of litigation from Earthjustice and others, it was Lisa Jackson who supported and implemented regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. After more than a decade of Earthjustice litigation it was Lisa Jackson who finally implemented the first regulation of mercury from cement kilns all over the country.”

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2012/lisa-jackson-to-leave-epa-earthjustice-statement

Here's a few of the accomplishments...
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1174138/48873639#c4

Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022512709

New EPA Rules Would Make Your Car Run Better And Cleaner
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022593375

[spanone]

3. the party that thinks it's smarter than science. how sad, pathetic and ignorant.

[freshwest]

4. CT indeed! Count Alex Jones among Senator Inhofe's crowd:

While Marc Morano is no more than a former staff to Inhofe, he is well known in the CT circles, etc...

Alex talks with Marc Morano, the man behind the Climate Depot, a website that regularly publishes articles questioning man-made global warming. Morano is the former communications director for Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the minority chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Alex also talks about the latest attack on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence from the New York Times and the effort by the globalists to destroy our heritage of liberty. Alex also covers the latest news, including continued preparations for war and false flag terror attacks. He takes your calls.

http://prisonplanet.tv/index/display/id/1969

Marc Morano: Carbon Taxing Your Family into Non-Existence - The Alex Jones Show 1/2

Uploaded on Sep 13, 2010

Alex also talks with "climate skeptic" Marc Morano, the man behind the Climate Depot website. Morano broke the Swift Boat story and effectively stalled John Kerry's presidential run in 2006...

I won't post this CT crap as I don't want to give them any traffic. But Biden was on target when he went after the black helicopter crowd in his remarks on gun control last week.

This is who runs the GOP and holds many high offices in our government. And this is how they energize their base to vote. Inhofe isn't just wrong on this issue - he's appealing to the most misinformed voters in the nation and he's not going anywhere.

There are a number of reference to the connections between Inhofe's positions and the CT, Ron Paul, etc. bunch running loose across the nation with great affect. God help us if the GOP takes the Senate in 2014...

[sheshe2]

5. This, A Threat To National Security!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022632105

On the other hand, Hagel has long cited climate change as a threat to national security and an important issue in terms of international relations. Here’s how Charlyne Berens explains it in her 2006 book Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward:

The science behind the assertions of global warming may not have convinced him to act, but his internationalist position seems to have done the trick. The senator said a global response to climate change is “a big deal to our allies, and it’s time we reconnect with them.” The issue deserves attention not only on the merits but also because America’s record on the environment has become one of many image problems for the United States, Hagel said: “Here’s the U.S., the biggest polluter, the wealthiest nation, pushing everybody around unilaterally.” He believes that needs to change.

Kick and Rec!

[JDPriestly]

6. Sanders, as usual, goes for the essential wasting no words to tell the truth

and nothing but the truth.

I love Bernie Sanders. What a great man.

[ErikJ]

7. Chicken Little Col. Sanders' Big hoax -what's he care? He's 71 and from Vermont. Must be money

Kidding!
His age proves how self-less and what a good human he is. GO BERNIE!!