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Author Topic: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery  (Read 3397 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #60 on: February 22, 2017, 07:04:42 pm »

How Big Oil    Conquered the World



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #61 on: February 23, 2017, 06:49:02 pm »

Bannon Admits Trump's Cabinet Nominees Were Selected To Destroy Their Agencies


By Dartagnan   

Thursday Feb 23, 2017 ·  4:27 PM EST

SNIPPET:

At CPAC today Stephen Bannon, the Chief Advisor and intellectual heft behind the Twittering infant that sits in the Oval Office, provided a little glimpse of the future he has planned for all of us.

In the clearest explanation for why nearly all of Trump’s cabinet choices are known mostly for despising and attacking the very Federal agencies they’ve been designated to lead, Bannon explained—in very clear language--that they weren't appointed to lead these agencies, but to destroy them:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/23/1637009/-Bannon-Reveals-His-Intention-To-Deconstruct-The-Administrative-State-i-e-Destroy-The-Country#comment_65617044





He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #62 on: February 26, 2017, 03:01:37 pm »
Trump wants Pruitt to finish What Reagan Started 


Thursday Feb 23, 2017 ·  5:50 PM EST



http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/23/1637002/-Trump-wants-Pruitt-to-finish-What-Reagan-Started


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #63 on: February 28, 2017, 01:38:09 pm »

Agelbert NOTE: The following videos are from the PBS documentary made based on the above book. The American people have been, not just ripped off on the price of fuels while simultaneously being manipulated into paying for oil wars with their blood, they have been forced to PAY with their health and dollars for the pollution which continues to degrade, and possibly doom, the biosphere.

Please pass it on.   

The Prize: A History of Oil, Money, and Power:

PBS The Prize Part 4 - Oil in the 20th Century


At this point, the Fossil Fuel Industry TOTALLY controlled US Foreign AND Domestic policy. But The American public had not caught on to that. As many today, they were propagandized (i.e. SUCKERED) into thinking oil was the "savior" of mankind.   >:(


PBS The Prize 5

PBS The Prize Part 6 - History of Oil

NO, OPEC DID NOT "end the power of the Oil Majors" as the above video claims. But PBS has a way of avoiding certain painful truths (like that fact that the USA put Saddam in power in Iraq AND the Shah of Iran in Iran).

The next video starts talking about an "allied" army that "fought Saddam's invasion". LOL! It was the USA that gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait as a SET UP! The Oil Majors USED the US Government to attack Iraq (in 1991 AND later in 2003). So, please remember that the fossil fuel GOVERNMENT is alive and killing we-the-people to this day.


PBS The Prize Part 7 of 8




PBS The Prize Part 8 of 8




« Last Edit: February 28, 2017, 06:28:54 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #64 on: February 28, 2017, 02:08:36 pm »
The REAL reason behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 


NOW, with Trump, even the few regulations the oil pigs had will be either eliminated or NOT enforced. Fasten your seat belts.


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #65 on: March 02, 2017, 04:32:51 pm »
Big Oil: 
 
From the Monopoly Men to the PetroDollar Recycling System

"In May 1973, with the dramatic fall of the dollar still vivid, a group of 84 of the world?s top financial and political insiders met at Saltsjobaden, Sweden, the secluded island resort of the Swedish Wallenberg banking family. This gathering of [the] Bilderberg group heard an American participant, Walter Levy, outline a "scenario" for an imminent 400 percent increase in OPEC petroleum revenues. The purpose of the secret Saltsjobaden meeting was not to prevent the expected oil price shock, but rather to plan how to manage the about-to-be-created flood of oil dollars, a process U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger later called 'recycling the petrodollar flows.'"

- F. William Engdahl, A Century of War (2004) [38]

According to research outlined in Dr. David Spiro's book, The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony (1999), it was during this time (May 1973 during the first ever Bilderberg Meeting) that OPEC began discussions on the viability of pricing oil trades in several currencies. This unpublished proposal involved a "basket of currencies" from the Group of Ten nations, or "G-10". These 10 members of the Bank of International Settlements (plus Austria and Switzerland) included the major European countries and their currencies such as Germany (Mark), France (Franc), and the U.K. (Sterling), as well other industrialized nations such as Japan (yen), Canada (Canadian dollar), and of course the Unites States (U.S. dollar). [35] It should be noted the powerful G-10/BIS Group of Ten also has one unofficial member, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, or SAMA.

In order to prevent this monetary transition to a basket of currencies, the Nixon administration began high-level talks with Saudi Arabia to unilaterally price international oil sales in dollars only - despite U.S. assurances to its European and Japanese allies that such a unique monetary/geopolitical arrangement would not transpire. In 1974 an agreement was reached with New York and London banking interests which established what became known as "petrodollar recycling."

That year the Saudi government secretly purchased $2.5 billion in U.S. Treasury bills with their oil surplus funds, and a few years later Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal cut a secret deal with the Saudis to ensure that OPEC would continue to price oil in dollars only. [36]

In typical understatement Dr. Spiro noted, "clearly something more than the laws of supply and demand resulted in 70 percent of all Saudi assets in the United States being held in a New York Fed account." [37] Naturally, this arrangement with the Saudi government prevented a market-based adjustment, and was the basis for the second phase of the American Century, the Petrodollar phase.  What follows is the extraordinary history in which petrodollar recycling was vigorously implemented during the 1970s.

Beginning in the mid-1970's the American Century system of global economic dominance underwent a dramatic change. The oil price shocks of 1973-1974 and 1979 suddenly created enormous demand for the floating dollar. Oil importing countries from Germany to Argentina to Japan, all were faced with how to acquire export-based dollars to pay their expensive new oil import bills. The rise in the price of oil flooded OPEC with dollars that far exceeded domestic investment needs, and were therefore categorized as "surplus petrodollars." A major share of these oil dollars came to London and New York banks where the new process of monetary petrodollar recycling was initiated.

Engdahl's remarkable book, A Century of War (2004), chronicles how certain geopolitical events mirrored a "scenario" discussed during a May 1973 Bilderberg meeting. Apparently powerful banking interests sought to "manage" the monetary dollar flows that were premised upon what the group envisioned as "huge increases" in the price of oil from the Middle East. The minutes of this Bilderberg meeting included projections regarding the price of "OPEC oil of some 400 per cent." [39]

In 1974 U.S Assistant Treasury Secretary Jack F. Bennett and David Mulford of the London-based Eurobond firm of White Weld & Co set about the mechanism to handle the surplus OPEC petrodollars. 40 Kissinger, Bennett and Mulford helped orchestrate the secret financial arrangement with the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA) that creatively transformed the high oil prices of 1973-1974 to the direct benefit of the U.S. Federal Reserve banks and the Bank of England.

Despite the financial windfall enjoyed by the U.S./U.K banking and petroleum conglomerates who "managed the recycling of petrodollar flows," most Americans regard the 1973-74 oil shocks as a particularly painful time period of high inflation and long lines at every gas station. In the Third World these high oil prices created huge loans from the International Monetary Fund debts to be re-paid entirely in dollars. 


...now let's fastforward to more recent events...

On September 24, 2000 Saddam Hussein emerged from a meeting of his government and proclaimed that Iraq would soon transition its oil export transactions to the euro currency. [52] Saddam referred to the U.S. dollar as currency of the "enemy state." Why would Saddam's currency switch be such a strategic threat to the bankers in London and New York? Why would the United States President risk fifty years of carefully crafted global alliances with various European allies, and advocate a military attack whose justification could not be proved to the world community? ???

The answer is simple - the dollar's unique role of a petrodollar has been the foundation of the dollar hegemony since the mid 1970's. The process of petrodollar recycling underpins American economic hegemony, which funds American military supremacy.

Dollar/petrodollar supremacy allows the U.S. a unique ability to sustain yearly current account deficits; pass huge tax cuts, build a massive military Empire of Bases around the globe, and still have others accept our currency as medium of exchange for their imported good and services. The origins of this history are not found in textbooks on International Economics, but rather in the minutes of meetings held by various banking and petroleum elites who have quietly sought unhindered power.

U.S. Dollar: Fiat Currency or Oil-Backed Currency?

"What the powerful men grouped around the Bilderberg had evidently decided that May <1973> was to launch a colossal assault against industrial growth in the world, in order to tilt the balance of power back to the advantage of Anglo-American financial interests and the dollar.  In order to do this, they determined to use their most prized weapon for control of the world's oil flows. Bilderberg policy was to trigger a global oil embargo in order to force a dramatic increase in world oil prices. Since 1945, world oil had by international custom been priced in dollars. A sudden sharp increase in the world price of oil, therefore, meant an equally dramatic increase in world demand for U.S. dollars to pay for that necessary oil.

Never in history had such a small circle of interests, centered in London and New York, controlled so much of the entire world's economic destiny. The Anglo-American financial establishment had resolved to use their oil power in a manner no one could have imagined possible. The very outrageousness of their scheme was to their advantage, they clearly reckoned."

- F. William Engdahl, A Century of War (2004)

At this point he makes an extraordinary claim: "I am 100 per cent sure that the Americans were behind the increase in the price of oil. The oil companies were in real trouble at that time, they had borrowed a lot of money and they needed a high oil price to save them."

'He says he was convinced of this by the attitude of the Shah of Iran, who in one crucial day in 1974 moved from the Saudi view' 'to advocating higher prices.'

'King Faisal sent me to the Shah of Iran, who said: Why are you against the increase in the price of oil? That is what they want! Ask Henry Kissinger - he is the one who wants a higher price.'

Yamani contends that proof of his long-held belief has recently emerged in the minutes of a secret meeting on a Swedish island, where UK and US officials determined to orchestrate a 400 per cent increase in the oil price.

- UK Observer interview with Sheikh Yaki Yamani (Saudi Arabian Oil Minister from 1962-1986) at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, January 14, 2001 54

As previously noted, the crucial shift to an oil-backed currency took place in the early 1970s when President Nixon closed the so-called 'gold window' at the Federal Treasury. This removed the dollar's redemption value from a fixed amount of gold to a fiat currency that floated against other currencies. This was done so the Federal Government would have no restraints on printing new dollars, thereby able to pursue undisciplined fiscal policies to maintain the U.S.'s Superpower status. The only limit was how many dollars the rest of the world would be willing to accept on the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government. The result was rapid inflation and a falling dollar.

Although rarely discussed outside arcane discussions of the 'global political economy,' it is easy to grasp that if oil can be purchased on the international markets only with U.S. dollars, the demand and liquidity value will be solidified given that oil is the essential natural resources required for every industrialized nation. Oil trades are the basic enablers for a manufacturing infrastructure, the basis of global transportation, and the primary energy source for 40% of the industrial economy.

During the 1970s a two-pronged strategy was pursued by the U.S./U.K. banking elites to exploit the unique role of oil in an effort to maintain dollar hegemony. One component was the requirement that OPEC agree to price and conduct all of its oil transactions in the dollar only, and two was to use these surplus petrodollars as the instrument to dramatically reverse the dollar's falling liquidity value via high oil prices. The net effect solidified industrialized and developing nations under the sphere of the dollar. No longer backed by gold, the dollar became backed by black gold.

This brilliant if somewhat nefarious act of monetary jujitsu enormously benefited not only the U.S./U.K. banking interests, but also the "Seven Sisters" of the U.S./U.K. petroleum conglomerate (Exxon, Texaco, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, British Petroleum, and Royal Dutch/Shell). These major oil interests had incurred tremendous debts from the capital requirements in their large new oil platforms in the inhospitable areas of the North Sea and in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

However, following the 1974 oil price shocks, their profitability was secure. Engdahl candidly noted "while Kissinger's 1973 oil shock had a devastating impact on world industrial growth, it had an enormous benefit for certain established interests - the major New York and London banks, and the Seven Sisters oil multinational of the United States and Britain." [57]

The unique monetary arrangement was formalized in June 1974 by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, establishing the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. The U.S. Treasury and the New York Federal Reserve would "allow" the Saudi central bank to buy U.S. Treasury bonds with Saudi petrodollars. [58]

Likewise, London banks would handle eurozone-based international oil transactions, loan these revenue via ?Eurobonds? to oil importing countries. The debt and interest from these loans would then flow to the dollar denominated payments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thereby completing the recycling of surplus petrodollars back to the Federal Reserve.

..as for Saddam's switch that led to "regime change"...

Although this little-noted Iraq move to defy the dollar in favor of the euro in itself did not have a huge impact, the ramifications regarding further OPEC momentum towards a petroeuro are quite profound. If invoicing oil in euros were to spread, especially against an already weak dollar, it could create a panic sell-off of dollars by foreign central banks and OPEC oil producers. In the months before the latest Iraq war, hints in this direction were heard from Russia, Iran, Indonesia and even Venezuela. There are indicators that the Iraq war was a forceful way to deliver a message to OPEC and others oil producers, "Do not transition from the petrodollar to a petroeuro system." Engdahl's conversation with a forthright London-based banker is rather enlightening:

Informed banking circles in the City of London and elsewhere in Europe privately confirm the significance of that little-noted Iraq move from petrodollar to petroeuro. "The Iraq move was a declaration of war against the dollar", one senior London banker told me recently. "As soon as it was clear that Britain and the U.S. had taken Iraq, a great sigh of relief was heard in London City banks. They said privately, "now we don't have to worry about that damn euro threat." [63]

Petrodollar recycling works quite simply because oil is an essential commodity for every nation, and the petrodollar system demands the buildup of huge trade surpluses in order to accumulate dollar surpluses. This is the case for every country but the United States, which controls the dollar and prints it at will or fiat. Because today the majority of all international trade is done in dollars, other countries must engage in active trade relations with the U.S. to get the means of payment they cannot themselves issue. The entire global trade structure today has formed around this dynamic, from Russia to China, from Brazil to South Korea and Japan. Every nation aims to maximize dollar surpluses from their export trade as almost every nation needs to import oil.

This insures the dollar's liquidity value, and helps explain why almost 70% of world trade is conducted in dollars, even though U.S. exports are about one third of that total. The dollar is the currency which central banks accumulate as reserves, but whether it is China, Japan, Brazil or Russia, they simply do not stack all these dollars in their vaults. Currencies have one advantage over gold. A central bank can use it to buy the state bonds of the issuer, the United States. Most countries around the world are forced to control trade deficits or face currency collapse.

Such is not the case in the United States, whose number one export product is the dollar itself.  This unique arrangement is largely due to the dollar's World Reserve currency role, which is underpinned by its petrodollar role. Every nation needs to get dollars to purchase oil, some more than others. This means their trade targets are countries that utilize the dollar, with the U.S. consumer as the main target for export products of the nation seeking to build dollar reserves.

References

35. David E. Spiro, The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony: Petrodollar Recycling and International Markets, Cornell University Press, (1999) p. 121-123

36. David E. Spiro, ibid, p. x

37. David E. Spiro, ibid, p. 125

38. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order,' Pluto Press (2004, 2nd edition), p. 130

39. William Engdahl, A Century of War, pgs. 130-138. Note: Engdahl was able to purchase the secret minutes of a May 1973 Bilderberg meeting from a Paris bookseller. His book contains actual photocopies of the cover page and related text discussed in chapter 1. The cover page is stamped: "SALSJOBADEN CONFERENCE 11-13 May 1973." Also stamped on the cover page are the words:"PERSONAL AND STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL" and "NOT FOR PUBLICATION EITHER IN WHOLE OR IN PART"

53. William Engdahl, A Century of War, op cited, p. 135

54. Oliver Morgan and Islam Faisal, ?Saudi dove in the oil slick,? Observer, January 14, 2001 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,42...

57. William Engdahl, ibid, p. 136
52. Robert Block, ?Some Muslim Nations Advocate Dumping the Dollar for the Euro,? The Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2003

63. William Engdahl, ?A New American Century? Iraq and the hidden euro-dollar wars,? currentconcerns.ch, No 4, 2003

http://alienscientist.com/bigoil.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #66 on: March 07, 2017, 02:26:42 pm »



Trump Steals ExxonMobil's Thunder for Obama-Era Investments: ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods announced the company's new $20 billion Gulf of Mexico spending plan, which aims to create 11 primarily US-based chemical and natural gas projects and 45,000 jobs, in a speech at CERAWeek Monday.

President Trump quickly took credit for Exxon's success, tweeting several times about the announcement, and the White House issued a statement that lifted entire paragraphs and sentences nearly verbatim from ExxonMobil's release on the plan. Analysts were quick to point out that most of the investments Woods described were made before the election, with some dating before the oil price crash in 2014.

Curiously  ;), the White House didn't comment on Woods's other focus in his CERAWeek speech: flaunting Exxon's progress on environmental and climate issues and expressing support for "transparent, uniform carbon prices." (Exxon plan: AP, Reuters, WSJ $, Houston Chronicle. Trump response: Washington Post $, Politico, Bloomberg, The Hill, Mother Jones. Carbon prices: Politico Pro $)


Forecast: Trump to Shower Industries with Gifts This Week
 
 The forecast this week calls for flurries of climate (in)action from the White House. Let’s run through the list of nightmares.
 
 Today, the EPA and DoT are expected to announce that they’re starting the process to revise fuel economy standards. The rollbacks will be a gift to the auto and oil industries, while the American public will pick up the tab at the pump. There are also murmurs that Pruitt will also go after California’s right to create stricter fuel efficiency standards than the federal government--a remarkably hypocritical position for Scott “States’ Rights” Pruitt to take.
 
 Also expected this week is an executive order instructing the EPA to begin the long and intensive process of undoing the Clean Power Plan while also lifting the moratorium on coal leasing on public lands. This will be framed as energy independence or security, but we all know it’s just another piece of corporate welfare for Trump’s fossil fuel buddies.
 
 Speaking of which, here’s a scary sentence from E&E: “The Inhofe   infantry   continues to grow at U.S. EPA.” Apparently a number of alums from Inhofe’s staff have found positions within the EPA and across the Trump administration. Which is just lovely.
 
 On a slightly sunnier note, Team Trump has not yet figured out what to do about the Paris Agreement, despite conflicting reports. While they deliberate, we’ll read and re-read Andrew Freedman’s perfect explanation of why “Leaving the Paris Agreement would be Trump's worst move yet.”
 
In the meantime, there are still clouds on the horizon to worry about. One big storm cloud we’re watching: Trump’s proposed budget. While Congress’s budget will most likely be better than the bloodbath of Trump’s initial proposal, it will still be bad. It’s not surprising that the proposed cuts to the EPA’s scientific research would be so severe as to cause the department to “implode,” but Trump’s even going after bipartisan-supported efforts like the Energy Star program, turning it over to industry.
 
 Fortunately even GOP appropriators have said the money that pours from the EPA to states will make it difficult for Congress to cut the budget to the degree Trump is asking. And if the pork barrel rationale doesn’t save the budget, maybe the GOP majority will actually listen to their constituents?
 
 That might be a good idea: a new survey out of Yale shows there is widespread support for reducing carbon pollution and increasing our investment in renewables. Even 62% of Trump supporters think there should be taxes or regulations on carbon pollution.
 
 Unfortunately, not polled were the only voices Trump appears to listen to: the corporate overlords he will apparently do just about anything to appease.
 
 So while uncertainty rains in the Trump camp, one thing is certain: we’re bracing for a SHITSTORM.

 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #67 on: March 10, 2017, 12:44:14 pm »
March 7, 2017 | Rona Fried | Policy/Trends

War on Regulations Takes Off

Last week, Trump ordered supervisors installed in all federal agencies to carry out his “2 for 1” scheme to eviscerate big bad regulations that supposedly hold our economy back. Only regulations that cost industries $0 in 2017 can stay in place – forget any benefits of holding corporations accountable, such as saving lives, protecting human health, safeguarding fundamental rights, worker rights, environmental rights, and caring for wildlife and wildlands. And for any regulation that is put in place, two must be eliminated even if they are entirely unrelated.

“This fundamentally changes our government’s role from one of protecting the public to protecting corporate profits, and will lead to a dangerous new era of deregulation and corporate “self-regulation,” says Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, which is suing Donald J. Trump for the regulations assault.

But this is just the beginning. If the Midnight Rules Act, REINS Act and Regulatory Accountability Act pass, major items long on the Republican wish list will finally be fulfilled. The bills have passed in the House and now await Senate action.
◾Midnight Rule Relief Act allows Congress – in just one vote – to repeal all regulations passed over the past year.

◾REINS Act (Regulations From The Executive In Need of Scrutiny  ::)) gives Congress control over major new regulations, taking it out of the hands of professionals in federal agencies. For the first time, Congress would be in charge of approving regulations. If not approved within 70 days, the regulation dies and the agency is barred from taking it up again.

◾Regulatory Accountability Act  makes it very hard to set new regulations by bogging the process down with over 60 new steps. Until now, agencies balance costs and benefits when considering new rules, but this law requires them to choose the “least costly” option as opposed to the “most effective” option.

The House passed the REINS Act several times during Obama’s term, but it was stopped in the Senate. The House voted down Democrat amendments to exempt rules that affect veterans’ health care, nuclear reactor safety, transportation of hazardous materials, and the safety of products used by children under the age of 2, reports USA Today.

Read our article, REINS Act Would Increase Toxic Pollution

These bills “give Congress sweeping authority to substitute political judgement for scientific judgement. It gives Congress permission to ignore all the years of technical work and public comment used to develop public health, safety, and environmental protections, and simply dismantle all these vital safeguards in one fell swoop,” says Union of Concerned Scientists. It’s ironic, because federal agencies develop regulations at the behest of Congress in the laws they pass!

The REINS Act “could, in effect, impose a slow-motion government shutdown, and would replace a process based on expertise, rationality and openness with one characterized by political maneuvering, economic clout and secrecy. The public would be less protected, and the political system would be more abused. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more far-reaching, fundamental and damaging shift in the way the government goes about its business of safeguarding the public,” says Natural Resources Defense Council.

Conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute is helping out with a 193-page agenda with a long list of regulations to eliminate, and Rep. Meadows (R-NC) has offered a list of 232 regulations that can be repealed immediately.

And who did Trump put in charge of advising on which regulations to gut? Billioinairre corporate raider Carl Icahn. With $16.5 billion, Icahn has plenty of money to protect (and grow!).

Corporations are Thrilled   

Real estate developers, for example, are thrilled with the rollbacks. Eliminating the “Waters of the US” rule makes it much easier to build without worrying about protecting wetlands and the streams half of Americans rely on for their drinking water. When the Endangered Species Act is gone, that will take a big pain out of the way.

Environmental Protection   Agency

Federal contractors are thrilled that the House repealed Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which requires them to comply with worker health and safety laws before getting new contracts. 30% of the worst violators received $81 billion in federal contracts, according to a 2013 Senate report.  It affects the family of Rodney Bridgett, who was killed when a piece of heavy equipment crushed him and Calvin Bryant, crippled by a workplace explosion that killed 14 co-workers, for example. A vote in the Senate is imminent.

On the chopping block:

◾lead safety standards in drinking water

◾unsafe chemicals to be removed from the market under the Toxic Substances Control Act

◾gut enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts

◾prohibit payday lenders from praying on consumers with high interest rates

◾gut Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform,  Consumer Protection Act, Food Safety Modernization Act, Pipeline Safety Act and many more.

◾gut food safety regulations, net neutrality rules that protect he Internet from monopolies, energy efficiency standards for appliances and vehicles, and of course, the Clean Power Plan that reduces emissions from power plants.

◾no more restrictions on oil drilling or coal mines on public land

◾no more standards for healthy school lunches

◾standards that protect health workers from exposure to infectious diseases

◾a rule to prevent mining equipment from crushing miners

◾rules that protect communities from oil trains from exploding

◾protections for endangered species

Visit rulesatrisk.org to keep up (if you can!) with the rules on the chopping block.


“It’s horrifying that even after the Wall Street crash, the massive BP oil spill and numerous other public health and safety disasters across the country due to a lack of strong regulations, Americans will once again have to pay the price for the consequences of corporate recklessness, greed and lawbreaking,” says Weissman.

“Congress totally lacks the technical competence to review these kinds of complex rules. Do we really want members of Congress deciding whether a chemical can safely be used in food packaging? Or the proper procedures for approving new drugs as safe and effective? Or setting the allowable safety standard for heavy metals in drinking water?,” asks Carl Pope, former Sierra Club president.

Say Goodbye to Class Action Lawsuits?


HR 985, which would make it almost impossible for citizens to join class action lawsuits – among the most effective tools for victims of corporate abuse – will soon get a vote. Think about the BP oil spill or Wells Fargo’s illegal bank accounts. HR 720, HR 725 and HR 732 would make it harder for victims of corporate wrongdoing to sue and hold them accountable.

How About a Rule that Requires the President to Reveal His Taxes?

Although the vast majority of Americans want Trump to reveal his taxes, House Republicans don’t like that rule either.  Every single one of them voted to block a resolution that would force Trump to do what all other presidents have done on their own volition.

The House Ways and Means Committee has the power to demand Trump’s taxes, but the full House voted it down when Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ) brought it to the floor.

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/war-regulations-takes-off/

Agelbert NOTE: Message from the Trump Team to we-the-people:

 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #68 on: March 10, 2017, 02:09:25 pm »
Agelbert Note: Tulsa World journalist understands what is going on at the EPA.

SNIPPET:

Quote

It’s clear from all of this that Scott Pruitt misled Congress and the American people about his intentions and beliefs as regards a core agency responsibility of regulating CO2 emissions.


For these reasons, Senators should demand that Pruitt be removed from his position -- that way he can be a fossil fuel lobbyist on his own time and not the government’s dime.


The arsonist is now in charge of the fire department, and Pruitt wants to let the climate crisis burn out of control. The EPA administrator is supposed to protect families and communities from environmental crises, but all Pruitt is willing to do is spewing corporate polluter talking points.


Pruitt is clearly unfit and uniquely unsuited to do the job he has been entrusted to do.


http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/othervoices/liz-perera-scott-pruitt-misled-congress-and-is-the-arsonist/article_c5bd99e3-f667-5a78-b1b1-0056587f70c0.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #69 on: March 12, 2017, 12:43:16 pm »

Beyond Cozy: Pruitt’s Oily Emails

Communications Expose Troubling Links Between New EPA Chief, Industry, Right Wing

https://medium.com/center-for-biological-diversity/beyond-cozy-emails-expose-troubling-links-between-new-epa-chief-industry-right-wing-8bdf8b067488#.73uvch2fw
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #70 on: March 13, 2017, 01:18:29 pm »


The Dance of Death

Posted on Mar 12, 2017

By Chris Hedges

SNIPPET:

The ruling corporate elites no longer seek to build. They seek to destroy. They are agents of death. They crave the unimpeded power to cannibalize the country and pollute and degrade the ecosystem to feed an insatiable lust for wealth, power and hedonism. Wars and military “virtues” are celebrated. Intelligence, empathy and the common good are banished. Culture is degraded to patriotic kitsch. Education is designed only to instill technical proficiency to serve the poisonous engine of corporate capitalism. Historical amnesia shuts us off from the past, the present and the future. Those branded as unproductive or redundant are discarded and left to struggle in poverty or locked away in cages. State repression is indiscriminant and brutal. And, presiding over the tawdry Grand Guignol is a deranged ringmaster tweeting absurdities from the White House.

The graveyard of world empires—Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Mayan, Khmer, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian—followed the same trajectory of moral and physical collapse. Those who rule at the end of empire are psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants, the equivalents of the depraved Roman emperors Caligula, Nero, Tiberius and Commodus. The ecosystem that sustains the empire is degraded and exhausted.


Economic growth, concentrated in the hands of corrupt elites, is dependent on a crippling debt peonage imposed on the population. The bloated ruling class of oligarchs, priests, courtiers, mandarins, eunuchs, professional warriors, financial speculators and corporate managers sucks the marrow out of society.


The elites’ myopic response to the looming collapse of the natural world and the civilization is to make subservient populations work harder for less, squander capital in grandiose projects such as pyramids, palaces, border walls and fracking, and wage war. President Trump’s decision to increase military spending by $54 billion and take the needed funds out of the flesh of domestic programs typifies the behavior of terminally ill civilizations. When the Roman Empire fell, it was trying to sustain an army of half a million soldiers that had become a parasitic drain on state resources.

The complex bureaucratic mechanisms that are created by all civilizations ultimately doom them. The difference now, as Joseph Tainter points out in “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” is that “collapse, if and when it comes again, will this time be global. No longer can any individual nation collapse. World civilization will disintegrate as a whole.”

Civilizations in decline, despite the palpable signs of decay around them, remain fixated on restoring their “greatness.” Their illusions condemn them. They cannot see that the forces that gave rise to modern civilization, namely technology, industrial violence and fossil fuels, are the same forces that are extinguishing it. Their leaders are trained only to serve the system, slavishly worshipping the old gods long after these gods begin to demand millions of sacrificial victims.

“Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes, which in turn create even more dangerous messes,” Ronald Wright writes in “A Short History of Progress.” “Hope elects the politician with the biggest empty promise; and as any stockbroker or lottery seller knows, most of us will take a slim hope over prudent and predictable frugality. Hope, like greed, fuels the engine of capitalism.” 

The Trump appointees—Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, Rick Perry, Alex Acosta and others—do not advocate innovation or reform. They are Pavlovian dogs that salivate before piles of money. They are hard-wired to steal from the poor and loot federal budgets. Their single-minded obsession with personal enrichment drives them to dismantle any institution or abolish any law or regulation that gets in the way of their greed. Capitalism, Karl Marx wrote, is “a machine for demolishing limits.” There is no internal sense of proportion or scale. Once all external impediments are lifted, global capitalism ruthlessly commodifies human beings and the natural world to extract profit until exhaustion or collapse. And when the last moments of a civilization arrive, the degenerate edifices of power appear to crumble overnight.



http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_dance_of_death_20170312

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #71 on: March 13, 2017, 02:11:47 pm »

Opening Arctic Waters to Drilling Is Trump Priority, Key Senator Says

March 12, 2017 by Bloomberg

SNIPPET:

Bloomberg) — Senator Lisa Murkowski said President Donald Trump is interested in opening up new coastal waters for oil and gas drilling and reversing Obama-era policies that restrict energy development in Alaska.

Both Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are weighing ways to expand opportunities to drill in Arctic waters though the changes could take years to accomplish administratively, Murkowski said in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston. 



http://gcaptain.com/opening-arctic-waters-to-drilling-is-trump-priority-key-senator-says/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #72 on: March 14, 2017, 06:41:58 pm »

Tillerson Used 'Alias' Email to Discuss Climate at Exxon, NY AG Says

  
Climate Nexus

Rex Tillerson used an email address registered under the name "Wayne Tracker" to discuss climate policies while CEO of ExxonMobil, according to a letter sent by the New York attorney general's office to a New York Supreme Court justice Monday.

In the letter, lawyers for AG Eric Schneiderman's office allege that Exxon did not disclose the existence of this false address in court documents and failed to provide correspondence from the account in its reply to the AG's subpoena investigating the company's public and private climate policies.

Exxon executives  responded that the "Wayne.Tracker@exxonmobil.com" address, in use between 2008 and 2015, was "put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics." 

http://www.ecowatch.com/tillerson-alias-email-2314066097.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #73 on: March 15, 2017, 07:52:35 pm »
Can you sue for Fracking Caused Earthquake Damage? ???


Thom chats with Dr. Anthony Ingraffea about the undeniable cause of the recent uptick in earthquakes in Oklahoma and what we can do about them.

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea PhD P.E. : Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering Emeritus and Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow - Cornell University.

Agelbert NOTE: Fossil Fuel Industry reaction to the above irrefutable facts:

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Re: Fossil Fuel Skulldugggery
« Reply #74 on: March 24, 2017, 09:02:51 pm »

Published on Mar 24, 2017

Thom talks with Greg Palast (Investigative Reporter & Contributor - Rolling Stone Magazine, Author & Filmmaker - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) about the current battle for control of the republican party between the billionaire Koch brothers and Paul Ryan's super PAC.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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