Obama’s China Syndrome: EPA Gives Chinese Millions For Green Projects – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, while campaigning in Tampa just before the RNC convention that began on Tuesday, outlined his energy and environmental plan that he claims will achieve energy independence by the year 2020. And he noted his plan doesn’t include millions of U.S. dollars for the Chinese.
He proposed opening new areas for offshore oil drilling, starting in Virginia and the Carolinas, and by empowering the states. He also noted that the Obama Environmental Protection Agency’s statutes and regulations would be removed or loosened to green-light more coal production and other industry priorities, and the United States would reach agreements for energy production with Canada and Mexico, including the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Possibly the most important Romney energy proposal is removing Obama’s “EPA fangs” and his internationalist green programs, said several Romney supporters.
For example, in a transaction by the Obama White House that’s sure to anger most Americans — if the news media ever bother to tell them — the People’s Republic of China and other nations get millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to help with their so-called green projects. The outrageous part of the story is that the U.S. is indebted to China for almost a trillion dollars, according to a vocal critic of outsourcing on Friday.
“President Barack Obama has kept his promise to create green jobs and green technology. The only setback is that he created the jobs and technology in other countries using suffering American taxpayers’ money,” claimed political consultant Michael Barker during a telephone interview with Examiner.
“Here are the facts: Obama is gutting the military due to the crippling deficits and the enormous national debt. The Chinese, however, are building up this military. And we’re giving them foreign aid. It’s madness,” said Barker.
The Obama EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, who launched an enormously expensive program to make America’s minority communities green, has sent millions of taxpayer dollars to environmental causes in nations overseas, including China, Russia and India.
These foreign nations are experiencing economic growth while millions of Americans suffer from joblessness, losing their homes due to foreclosures, and watching their health care being transformed into another government entitlement program, according to political activist Joshua Tallis.
“Ranking members of the U.S. Congress Energy Committee called the program “foreign handouts” amid record deficits, soaring unemployment and a looming debt ceiling in the U.S. The money — $27 million since 2009 — has been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is headed by Ms. Jackson,” Tallis said.
“It’s a sad situation made sadder by the fact the news media — always looking out for Obama’s best interests — are ignoring this story. If it wasn’t for a public-interest legal group, Judicial Watch, who knows if we’d ever find out about this giveaway before the November election,” said Tallis.
The cash was distributed via 65 foreign grants that don’t even include Canada and Mexico, according to a report by Judicial Watch, a watchdog group based in the nation’s capital.
Among the foreign handouts are $1.2 million for the United Nations to promote clean fuels, $718,000 to help China comply with two initiatives and $700,000 for Thailand to recover methane gas at pig farms, according to public-interest group’s investigation, according to the Judicial Watch blog report.
An additional $150,000 went to help the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) combat fraud in carbon trading and $15,000 to Indonesia’s “Breathe Easy, Jakarta” publicity campaign.
This sort of federal spending does not reflect the priorities of the American people, according to a letter that several lawmakers sent Jackson in the report’s aftermath.
There are some who believe a investigation — perhaps a criminal investigation — may be in order since much of this financial activity is done without Congressional oversight and without examination of the people involved in these transactions, said former white-collar crime investigator George Lestieri, now a corporate security consultant.
Since being appointed EPA Administrator, Jackson has gone on a manic spending spree to bring “environmental justice” to low-income and minority communities. Under the program, dozens of left-wing groups have received millions of taxpayer dollars to help poor and impoverished people increase recycling, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization,” participate in “green jobs” training and avoid heat stroke.
“This is a lot of money switching hands and no one even bothered to vet these recipients,” said Lestieri.
However on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down EPA’s costly Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, ruling the agency had acted in excess of its statutory authority. Just last week, a federal appeals court vacated EPA’s disapproval of Texas’ flexible permitting program.
This emerging trend in the courts underscores just how far EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has gone to push through EPA’s reckless regulatory agenda. EPA continues to fight the law in an effort to justify its job-destroying regulations, but this time, the law won, according to GOP lawmakers on the Energy Committee.
The EPA’s budget has also surged 34% since Jackson took over to a whopping $10.3 billion. The figure includes $43 million for efforts to reduce greenhouse gases that the agency claims “endanger” public health, according to Judicial Watch.
By the EPA’s own statements, Administrator Jackson has pledged to focus on core issues of protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination in U.S. communities, and reducing greenhouse gases. She has pledged that all of the agency’s efforts will follow the best science, adhere to the rule of law, and be implemented with unparalleled transparency.
By the same statements, she has made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups – including children, the elderly, and low-income communities – that are particularly susceptible to environmental and health threats. She has promised that all stakeholders will be heard in the decision-making process.
Nearly half of the EPA’s budget goes to grants that fund state environmental programs, nonprofits and educational institutions that help promote the agency’s agenda.
While the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats know that passing so-called environmental legislation will be a tough sell to the American people, the White House is bypassing the legislative process by surreptitiously using the Environmental Protection Agency, claims Barker.
EPA officials have declared carbon dioxide and other gases to be a threat to the environment and to the health of Americans. They are currently formulating regulations to restrict emissions from automobiles and trucks, power plants and other sources.
For example, any farm with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain a permit to operate, which, according to the United State Department of Agriculture, would cover 99 percent of dairy production, 95 percent of its hog production and 90 percent of beef production.
According to one organization, the New York Farm Bureau, the new permits would cost farmers well over $110 million a year, dramatically impacting the agricultural sector and economy. The tax is estimated at $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 per hog. The added financial burden on already-struggling farmers could force many family farms out of business and lead to a raise in food prices, the group said.