BREAKING -- Dow Chemical Wins Removal of EPA's Mary Gade, Region V Administrator

by: asagady

Thu May 01, 2008 at 17:42:38 PM EDT

Nancy + Arnie terminate Dingell's preemption perversity

by: David Boyle

Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 23:53:03 PM EST

    ...The package nearly fell apart this week when Mr. Dingell insisted on leaving sole authority to regulate automobile mileage standards with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an arm of the Transportation Department. That would have weakened the power of the Environmental Protection Agency and the states, led by California, to regulate auto emissions of carbon dioxide, which are in large measure a function of the amount of fuel burned.
    Federal court rulings this year have decided this so-called pre-emption issue in favor of the E.P.A. and the states, decisions that Mr. Dingell hoped to undo by Congressional action. ...
    The authority of the E.P.A. to regulate tailpipe emissions and the right of California and other states to set their own, higher standards were considered deal-breakers by Ms. Pelosi and her fellow California Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, weighed in late in the week to tell negotiators that he would oppose the bill if the [sic] Mr. Dingell's preemption language stayed in.
    Mrs. Pelosi and Democratic leaders in the Senate rejected Mr. Dingell's preemption effort, but softened the blow by agreeing to allow the car companies to retain a credit for vehicles capable of running on a blend of gasoline and ethanol. That credit was set to expire in 2008 but now will begin to decline in 2014 and be eliminated entirely by 2020. ...

    (For some background, see ye previous workes of mine hand, 9th Circuit slaps Detroyota on truck CAFE standards and Pelosi preps Dingell for retirement, sidelines him on CAFE standards.)

    Fine work Nancy! I guess you found some use for crazy Arnie after all...

Michigan Makes Nat'l News; Don't Eat the Fish

by: DianeS

Mon Nov 26, 2007 at 11:40:29 AM EST

Sign in public park in Saginaw County, downstream from Dow Chemical's Midland facilities.

SAGINAW, Mich. - A find of dioxin at the bottom of the Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant.

A crew testing the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers discovered the sample, which measured 1.6 million parts of dioxin per trillion of water, The Saginaw News and The Detroit News reported last week. That level is about 20 times higher than any other find recorded in the EPA archives.

"There may be more surprises out there," said Milton Clark, a health and science expert for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "I'd be surprised if there's not more surprises out there."

State guidelines require corrective action on contamination above 1,000 parts per trillion.

While a spokesman from Dow said "We don't believe there's any imminent or significant human health or environmental threat" the EPA must have some qualms about that or it wouldn't have issued the order for Dow to
clean up three hot spots in the Tittabawasee River. As the clean-up is ordered to be completed by the end of this year, things aren't looking too good for achieving this goal  based on this latest report.

More below the fold...

Dingell enrages Daily Kos (UPDATED: front-page noted at DKos)

by: David Boyle

Tue Jun 05, 2007 at 13:02:48 PM EDT

  "John Dingell (D-Michigan) and Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) are divisive, obtuse, arrogant scumbags, pure and simple.
  These two men are the prime movers behind a bill in the House Energy and Commerce committee, of which Dingell is the chairman and Boucher a subcommittee head.
  Get this: The San Francisco Chronicle breaks the story and the draft legislation can be read here, supposedly and here.

Why is it always your friends who screw you over the hardest?  (I don't know, David, but I have a feeling you've got more below the fold. -- E.B.)