Obama to take sweeping action on climate
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...e0e_story.html

:)

“The president confronts many threats that appear more urgent, but none are more important to his legacy,” Lashof said.

Chas

We're still not creating jobs at a rate sufficient to get more Americans back to work, and there is a negative correlation between environmental regulation and economic growth. But such details have never stood in this administration's way of pursuing their agenda.

We have been doing much better than the rest of the western world in jobs creation.

Environmental issues cannot be placed on the back burner for too long.

Dispite all the propaganda of the greed is good community people are more knowledgeable re the environs.

Check Turkey: The government wanted to take away the little green space in the city to give it to business. Yes, and to provide jobs. :D

I'll bet this is just part of a broader administration package that includes opening up the Keystone pipeline. He'll thereby throw a bone to Labor (in favor of the pipeline) and environmentalists (in favor of Green energy).

It's just the pendelum swinging. After eight years of drill baby drill and deregulation of everything, we are seeing smarter heads prevail finally.

Um, not so much.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...e-jobs/276505/

Like fixing the country? :rolleyes:

If your country is poor or very poor, then it is hard to create worse jobs.

Yeah. He'll fix it, but good! :rolleyes:

You're referencing the U.N.I.L.O. study! We'll make a community organizer out of you yet, Mike..,;):)

Great! I was hoping my electric bill would go up ;)

Pete

West Virginny is doing so well with mountain top removal, which fills in the hollers and silts up the streams. At least they're getting brand new golf courses as a result of Massey's reclamation efforts.:rolleyes:

It's already markedly improved. :D

Yup! Real estate values are climbing out of the toilet after taking a nosedive and anyone with a 401k is happier. The American auto biz is back.

Sure is funny how some like to believe that Obama is some wild eyed lefty soshalist bent on destroying capitalism when the opposite is true. Must be all that Glenn Beck, Breibart and Faux News that they are watching?:rolleyes:

Maybe so, but, we've all seen the effects of unchecked industrial pollution on public health and environment. (Especially those of us who grew up in the Rust Belt during the so-called "Good ol' days".) I am just old enough to recall the days when residents in Youngstown and Pittsburgh would be advised to stay indoors during "inversions".

For those who don't know, an "inversion" is when certain weather conditions move over a valley and prevent pollutants from escaping. It would get so thick you could see it hanging in the air and get a metallic taste in your mouth. Google up "Donora, Pennsylvania Smog" to see just how bad it was before environmental regulation. Or, better yet, Google up "China industrial pollution" to see how bad it IS.

Do you really think that was good?

It truly is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, isn't it, Mike?

Dave

Not necessarily. Timing, and approach, are everything. The government can take unilateral action, or it can be a partner. And there's nothing more compelling right now than getting the economy growing again and getting folks back to work. The environmentalists can wait until the economic picture improves. Then they'll really have something to bitch about. ;)

I don't want them to have anything to bitch about. What you said about the government can also be said of industry.

And, in regards to this;

"And there's nothing more compelling right now than getting the economy growing again and getting folks back to work."

I couldn't agree more. Except, I happen to believe that which is built too quickly, falls apart just as quickly. And, that if it is built on a foundation too far tilted towards exploitation of resources, which includes human resources, that that foundation is only built upon the seeds of it's own destruction.

Dave

Wise words, Dave.

Geezzz... The economy is doing better than it has in a long time, unemployment figures are improving, and I see people who haven't had jobs in years going to work....

Admittedly, the turn around is taking time, as it should...

And still, people complain?
Couldn't just be a case of partisan sour grapes, eh?
,

Really, Barb? Republicans angry because they lost? Naw! Not them..................:rolleyes:

Dave

............:)

It is a hesitant recovery at best.

Dave I lived at the very edge of the industrial flats in Cleveland in the early 80s, if the wind was blowing the wrong way when it rained everything would get covered in a thin black muck.

Pete

Yes, that did still happen in the early '80s. Not so much on the tail end of the '80s though and I'm sure it was totally gone by 2009.

Domestically produced steel is so expensive...............:rolleyes:

Dave

Sadly, I was working at a steel warehouse in the 80s, when domestic steel came in we had to mic every coil for tolerance, when jap steel came in we mic'd 1 coil to make sure they didn't mis-ship - they were always in tolerance. Still irritates me.

The big difference I see in production here is, back then at night the flats would be alight with 100s' of small smokestack flames, now there's only one large one. Heck once I was driving through Republic/LTV at night and all the railroad tracks were on fire, it was very cool. I have no idea why though.

Good times. In winter we used to hike down into the valley, there was a spot where very large ingots of redhot raw steel came out of one building on tracks and slowly moved into another. Heat! Great place to party :) The workers never got mad at us, although once we were wandering around deep in the heart of the plant (it must be square miles) (with beer) and they threw us out.

Pete

The steel mill owners were in the catbird seat after WW II as the Japanes and Eiuropean mills had been flattened. The mill owners made large profits but instead of investing in newer equipment the pissed away the profits.

Having to totally re-build the Japanese and Europeans invested in the latest technology so the U.S. mills were no longer competitive.

The greatest generation screwed up? :)

Every time I see this thread title I picture the Pres with a giant broom.

Pete

Ayup. I remember a mill in Youngstown investing a few million in furnace upgrades only to shut down the following year. Too little, too late.

Another fascinating story is one of Bethlehem Steel executives building golf courses at nearly every facility as they went into bankruptcy for the final time in the 1990s. They simply assumed that they were still so vital to the economy and national defense that the government would bail them out, no questions asked. Their thinking really was that far behind the times as BethSteel had ceased to be vital in either way decades earlier. Amazing.

Dave

I see that Obama has taken the tactic of ridicule, straight from "Rules for Radicals", to label any critics of his push for more EPA controls as members of the " Flat Earth Society".

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...#ixzz2XFsQ5mgH

Which is the sort of diatribe I would expect from the leading cheerleader of the "Chicken Little Society".

Apparently, he has given even less thought as to what these actions will do concerning the economic recovery as he extended whenever he discussed the "profits/earning" ratio concerning the stock market.

I DO wish he would stick to doing something he's proficient at...such as being a freeloading golfer at the taxpayer's expense.

Chas

The truth be known, I tend to suspect that the mill owners invested PLENTY in foreign markets.

After all, that's what giant multinationals do, They've been doing it forever, and they're doing it to this day.

Chas

A feller can make pretty good money going broke...if he knows what he's doing.

Chas

Seems to me that tactic was well used during the Bush administration when anyone who questioned the truth behind WNDs was labeled 'unAmerican' and 'unpatriotic'.

Guess the Bush and his cohorts must be very familiar with those Rules for Radicals you referenced.

Indeed. There's no successful tactic employed only by one side of the political aisle. If it works, they all do it and creating/exploiting fear is very high in the hierarchy of political tactics, perhaps at the very top.

He started it, Mommy!!!

Chas

Neither of them started it. They're simply engaging in a tactic as old as American politics.

Um....Actually, in some ways...Yes. And, I think you know that, Pete.

But, then, considering the way they suffered in the years preceding and during the war, I really can't blame them for taking advantage of the unique situation and the times they lived in following WW2. I would have done the same.

Dave

Ayup.

Dave

Just pointing out the obvious, Chas.

If you don't want to see a comparison to a republican, don't try pinning wrong doing on one party when both are equally guilty.

Actually the Republican mastery of this technique is awe inspiring.

I don't recall who said it, but I recently saw a quote that went something like;

"The most tragic aspect of modern Liberalism is that it will be most staunchly opposed by those who stand to gain the most from it."

Of course you will oppose something such as Medicare when you have been conditioned to believe that receiving anything from the government makes you a mooching welfare case..............:rolleyes:

Dave

I said the mill owners Pete, I doubt that any of them saw service.