Wonder who is funding Joe

Joe Manchin Joining GOP Mission To Restrict EPA

Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) is breaking party ranks in co-sponsoring a bill aimed at advancing Republican efforts to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.


The West Virginia senator is the only Democratic member of the upper congressional chamber getting on board with the political mission.


Politico reports that in a statement, Manchin said, "It's time that the EPA realizes it cannot regulate what has not been legislated. Our government was designed so that elected representatives are in charge of making important decisions, not bureaucrats."

Coal bucks? Say it ain't so Joe.

Listen to the frogs

Study says herbicide causes frogs' sex change

From the San Francisco Chronicle (reference info follows article text): A powerful and widely used herbicide called Atrazine changes the sex of many male frogs to females and emasculates three-quarters of others, according to research reported this week by a UC Berkeley professor and molecular toxicologist.


The controversy has major political implications because the Environmental Protection Agency had approved Atrazine under the Bush administration after rejecting earlier findings, and agency scientists in the Obama administration are now reviewing that EPA rule. The European Union has already banned Atrazine after concluding that minute levels found in lakes and streams severely damaged amphibians.

But wait, Syngenta claims:

The latest, cutting-edge research shows that atrazine has no adverse effect on frogs. In reviewing the research in 2007, EPA went so far as to say, "the data are sufficiently robust to outweigh previous efforts to study the potential effects of atrazine on amphibian gonadal development" and "there is no compelling reason to pursue additional testing."

So who to believe, a toxicologist or the company making money from the product? My bet is on the frog who is telling us that something is just not right. Something is going on. We should pay attention. 50 years as a product does not mean safety!

Crazy Train rides through Texas

Image via Wikipedia

Gov. Rick Perry Sues The EPA Over Greenhouse Gas Regulation

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) announced at a press conference Tuesday that he's suing the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of Texas over its December decision to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. Perry stated the intent of the lawsuit was to "defend Texas' environmental successes against federal overreach."


Perry cited in both the press conference and in his lawsuit the controversial leaked "ClimateGate" emails as evidence that the EPA's decision to regulate carbon emissions was inappropriate -- suggesting the science of global warming is somehow in doubt.

Following in Utah's steps.

The state that gave us "planes into Fed buildings", George W. Bush and the Dallas Cowboys. That explains all.

The EPA gets one right

Image via Wikipedia

Reversing Bush, EPA Proposes Strictest Ever Smog Standards

...the agency has just announced it is proposing the strictest ever standards for smog in the US. Smog, or ground level ozone, is responsible for a slew of serious health problems, especially for children, and can result in premature death. The new measure would actively reduce the amount of smog in urban areas around the US.

So this one was right. Doesn't make their mountaintop mining policy taste any better though.

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