BREAKING: Greenhouse Gas NOT A Cause Of Climate Change. Who sez so? Trump’s EPA:
For years the Environmental Protection Agency has pushed carmakers to reduce how much vehicles contribute to climate change.
Today the EPA laid out plans to not just weaken those rules, but end them entirely.
In 2009, the agency determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a form of air pollution that the agency can regulate under the Clean Air Act. That’s because those gases contribute to climate change, which harms human health.
That determination, called the “endangerment finding,” underpins major regulations — including strict tailpipe standards for carmakers that envisioned at least half the new cars sold in the U.S. being electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030. The transportation sector is the largest source of direct greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Now, the EPA has published its proposal to revoke the “endangerment finding” and rewrite its tailpipe standards — meaning the third set of rules is poised to fall.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the proposal at a truck dealership in Indiana on Tuesday, after previewing it on a conservative podcast. “We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the Finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods,” Zeldin wrote in a statement.
In the proposal, the EPA lays out multiple arguments for eliminating the standards. First, if carbon dioxide is not “air pollution” as traditionally understood, then EPA cannot regulate it. Alternatively, the agency says, even if the EPA could regulate it, there’s not a good reason to do so, in part based on a report from five scientists who reject the scientific consensus on climate change.
I can’t even…
Historic Earthquake in Russia Sends Tsunami Waves To Cali. Hope that Putin paid the proper tariffs on this export:
Tsunami waves began to reach the U.S. West Coast early Wednesday morning as the effects of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, were felt in nations on both sides of the Pacific. Waves as high as 5.7 feet above normal washed onto Hawaii, though officials said the threat of widespread destruction there had passed.
The tsunami was moving down the California coast, where just before 2 a.m. Pacific a surge of 3.6 feet was detected in Crescent City, a low-lying northern community near the Oregon state line. Authorities closed some of California’s beaches, docks and harbors, warning of strong and dangerous currents.
Experts said the earthquake, which struck off Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, could be the sixth largest on record. It prompted tsunami warnings and evacuations in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Russia and Japan, leaving millions anxiously awaiting waves that forecasters said could approach 10 feet in places. In Hawaii and Russia, however, the worst fears did not appear to be realized.
Everybody But A Couple Of Our Former Commenters Agree–Israel Is Committing Genocide:
A growing number of the world’s leading genocide scholars believe that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC.
The paper interviewed seven renowned genocide and Holocaust researchers* from six countries – including Israel – all of whom described the Israeli campaign in Gaza as genocidal. Many said their peers in the field share this assessment.
“Can I name someone whose work I respect who does not think it is genocide? No, there is no counterargument that takes into account all the evidence,” Israeli researcher Raz Segal told NRC.
Professor Ugur Umit Ungor of the University of Amsterdam and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies said that while there are certainly researchers who say it is not genocide, “I don’t know them”.
The Dutch paper reviewed 25 recent academic articles published in the Journal of Genocide Research, the field’s leading journal, and found that “all eight academics from the field of genocide studies see genocide or at least genocidal violence in Gaza”.
The report noted that even researchers who had previously hesitated to use the term have since changed their position, such as Shmuel Lederman of the Open University of Israel.
It also referred to the opinion of Canadian international law scholar William Schabas that Israel is committing genocide, although he is considered otherwise conservative with respect to genocide labelling.
In an interview with Middle East Eye last month, Schabas said Israel’s campaign in Gaza was “absolutely” a genocide.
“There’s nothing comparable in recent history,” said Schabas. “The borders are closed, the people have nowhere to go, and they’re destroying have made life essentially impossible in Gaza.
“We see that combined with the ambition, expressed sometimes very openly by both Trump and Netanyahu, and by the Israelis, to reconfigure Gaza as some sort of eastern Mediterranean Riviera.”
Case closed. This is no longer worthy of debate. Certainly not on DL.
Josh Marshall On L’Affaire Epstein. Few, if any, write better ‘think pieces’ than Josh.
Mamdani’s Messaging Success. No wonder corporadems fear him:
Whatever happens in the mayoral race, Mamdani is already making a major contribution to a huge debate among national Democrats: over how to compete digitally in the age of Donald Trump. Much of this debate has turned on how to use paid digital spots in nontraditional ways and how to empower influential “Joe Rogan of the left” podcasters—or some other similar network—to achieve the penetration into the culture that matches whatever it is Trump achieved, which is elusive and hard to define.
But the Mamdani campaign seems to be achieving a version of this penetration with unpaid social media videos that communicate directly with voters. The goal is to achieve a kind of Trumpian ubiquity: Andrew Epstein, the campaign’s creative director, says it’s designed to ensure that if you are “on your phone,” you are “going to see Zohran.”
The party has long been overly reliant on issue testing and polling to make ads. But Butterfield notes that Mamdani’s approach is based on the intuition that “letting him speak authentically to what he believes” will “break through” on the internet, understood as an “entertainment and social vehicle” where the competition for eyeballs is relentless.
‘Speak authentically to what he believes.’ What a revolutionary concept. Not to mention, common sense. BTW, just askin’, is Alonna Berry speaking authentically to what she believes? Answer? No:
Oftentimes, Berry did not firmly come down on one side of hot-button policy issues.
“I think we really have to dig into what the policy says, line by line,” Berry said when asked about proposed changes to Delaware’s income tax brackets — an effort that Gov. Matt Meyer and some statehouse Democrats have publicly supported but the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce has opposed.
Berry said it was important first to understand who would be impacted by the policy and to garner constituent buy-in.
She also said it was important to factor in how tax policy will affect the state’s future revenue streams and its “Rainy Day” reserve fund.
She deserves to lose. Maybe the ‘numbers’ will work in her favor, but she’s already told us who she is. A mindless drone, who speaks like she has John Carney on speed-dial.
More On The Upcoming Special Session Concerning Property Reassessments. I reiterate that legislators could do far worse than to consider these proposals from Mediawatch.
What do you want to talk about?