In the name of being more "business friendly" (but less lungs friendly) and eliminate allegedly "too burdensome" regulations, Team Obama wants to eliminate urban gas station vapor-trapping regulations.
Yep, those bellows on fuel nozzles at big city gas stations, already in place for a decade or more in larger urban areas, could be gone.
Here's the nugget:
The Environmental Protection Agency will eliminate requirements in some states for vapor recovery systems at gas stations, which are "redundant" because of improved air pollution controls in vehicles, saving $67 million annually.Last time I checked, fuel pumps don't drive anywhere. Last time I checked, we'd added millions of new drivers to the road since the first vapor-control devices were required. Last time I checked, putting any additional petrochemical vapors in the air would not just be an air pollution problem but might add to global warming particulates, at least indirectly.
More proof that Obama's not even a neoliberal? Where his not-at-all liberal "tipping point" guru is presenting this:
Cass Sunstein, the White House regulatory chief, planned to describe the changes later Thursday morning in remarks to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.Meanwhile, the intensely political Obama is clearly trying to have his neolib cake with conservative frosting, and eat it politically, too:
Most proposals announced Thursday are not final and will be updated to reflect public comment, the White House said. That process is expected to last into the summer, said lobbyists who had been told about the plan.
So, he'll see how loud environmentalists scream versus how much pre-informed lobbyists contribute to his campaign. Got it?
Now, you people who say "Ooohhhh, we could get a Republican president if all good liberals don't vote for Obama"? What do we have right now?
Very good and informative post, Thanks! Glad to have found you at Dispatches.
ReplyDeleteJust one minor complaint.
"More proof that Obama's not even a neoliberal? Where his not-at-all liberal "tipping point" guru is presenting this:..."
Neoliberal is a term not widely used in mainstream U.S. discourse, but is widely used in academia, the Left, and worldwide to mean pro-capitalist private enterprise, pro- privatization, anti-regulation market driven reforms etc. This ideology and policy prescriptions are referred to as "neoliberalism", and is often pushed by the World Bank and IMF on developing countries.
But just don't take my word for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
And look around elsewhere to verify what I am saying.
Cheers!
Sheldon, I meant that he was moving even to the right of neoliberalism, at least how the word is used in domestic consumption for where on the left-to-right scale people stand.
ReplyDeleteAnd, did you look at either my Facebook pic, or the blog post, FDR 1936 vs. BHO 2012?
Yeah, I saw that Gadfly, I understood what you were saying, that indeed Obama is moving to the right, which also promotes "neo-liberalism", my only point was simply that the term is really outside of the liberal-conservative dichotomy and terminology popular in mainstream American political discourse.
ReplyDelete