Obama’s Regulations Actually Hurt the Environment
Do you remember the Obama
years? Countless terrible ideas were put into policy for stupid reasons. Not
least of those were environmental regulations that stifle economic growth.
We’ve seen since Trump took over that removing those regulations was all we
needed to get the economy churning
again.
Still, one might consider
a loss of money worthwhile if it made the earth a safer place. Unfortunately
for Obama and his ilk, that’s not at all what happened. New reports show that
the bulk of his policies were worse for the environment than doing nothing.
Now, I’m not using this to
try to lecture you about climate change. But, for the sake of argument, we’ll
assume that greenhouse gases are real and bad. Doing so will prove that
everything Obama did as President was a lie — and a dangerous one at that.
Ethanol - Obama made it clear
that he wanted to transform the energy industry. Under the guise of
environmentalism, he invested heavily in alternative fuels. He also used
unilateral regulation to force biofuels into many sectors.
The result is that today,
you can scarcely find gasoline anywhere in the country that is without ethanol.
The proposed theory behind the process is that ethanol is a better fuel in
terms of greenhouse gases. The truth is not quite so favorable.
In 2011, a Congressional
study showed that ethanol biofuels were not the promised savior in terms of
environmental impact. The study made it clear that Obama’s policies had indeed
increased ethanol biofuel consumption, but that it had actually had a net
negative impact on the environment.
The first problem is with
water pollution. Ethanol production produces phosphorus which is toxic and
easily gets into water tables, and that happened on a large scale thanks to
Obama.
Other problems were
related to the agricultural production of ethanol. Soybeans and corn are the
primary sources, and the study showed that ethanol demand had increased
production of both crops in unfavorable ways. They contributed to soil
degradation and increased water consumption.
The last thing the study
showed is that ethanol usage led to a net increase in greenhouse gas
production. It’s pretty simple. Ethanol does produce fewer emissions per gallon
burned than some traditional fuels, but it produces so little power that you
have to burn more of it. In the end, that led to a spike in greenhouse gases
that wouldn’t have happened if Obama had left everything alone.
After reading the study,
Obama doubled down on his policies and forced even more ethanol on the American
people. A follow up study was released this summer, and it showed the exact
same things. Obama’s ethanol policies had a net negative impact on all of the
environmental factors he claimed to be combating.
EPA - If ethanol was Obama’s
only failure, we could probably all let it slide. It’s only the beginning.
Another effort from the 44th was to ramp up EPA oversight. He expanded the
offices and budget and pushed them to meddle in more things. After eight years,
they only had two significant accomplishments to their name.
One of those was the
Animas River incident. In 2015, the EPA tried to clean up a mining site. If
left alone, the metal toxins in the mine would never have hurt
anyone. After the EPA meddled, they dumped over a million gallons of toxic
waste into the Animas River. That’s a major water source for thousands of
people living in Colorado and New Mexico. After they ruined a major water
source, they were charged with cleaning the river. They never did.
The other major accomplishment
of Obama’s EPA was in Flint, Michigan. You might remember this one. The city
government followed an EPA-approved plan to switch the city’s water supply. The
result was widespread lead poisoning. When things went from bad to worse, the
EPA took over the whole situation. Nothing was resolved for several years. It
wasn’t until a new EPA chief in 2017 changed the approach that progress was
finally made. And, in the summer of 2018, water samples finally tested to have safe levels of
everything.
California Fires - If you watch the news then you might know that
California is battling the largest forest fire in the state’s history. That’s a
pretty big deal. Climate change alarmists will tell you that it’s because
hotter temperatures have increased dryness in the forests and made them more
flammable. This is utter nonsense. California was far dryer a year and a half
ago at the peak of their drought. There were fires then too, but they were
contained. The truth is that California is currently enjoying the highest soil
humidity levels they’ve seen in decades.
The real problem with
forest fires was predicted years ago. Obama wasn’t the first president to go
after loggers and foliage management, but he was the most recent. He doubled
down on policies crafted by Al Gore in the 90s, and the result is that
Californians are largely unable to do things that prevent the spread of fires.
Controlled logging and general caretaking are essential to mitigating fire
risk, and California has abandoned those practices. And, the result isn’t just
a record fire. The fire is also releasing tons of toxins and greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere. It’s a pretty big disaster all around.
Natural Gas - Easily Obama’s most
dangerous approach to climate safety was in natural gas. Once again, purporting
environmental safety, Obama went after natural gas production. The most
prolific way was regulating fracking into the ground. Since fracking is the
cheapest way to get natural gas, Obama’s regulations inflated prices. That led
to a massive shift in burning coal and oil for the same purposes. The
result is that greenhouse gas production ran away during the Obama
Administration.
Since taking office, Trump
overturned a number of those regulations and natural gas prices fell. As a
result, the United States cut greenhouse gas production in 2017 by more than
every single member of the Paris Climate Accord combined.
These are just the biggest
stories. The truth is that Obama’s policies have proven to be bad for everyone
at every turn. His flimsy justifications don’t hold. He said he was hurting the
economy to save the environment. He said he signed a deal with Iran to prevent
them from having a nuclear program. He claimed he bombed countless countries
for the good of mankind. All of these claims have been proven to be equally
false.
In the end, he hurt the
economy, bungled foreign policy and trashed the environment for no discernable
reason other than expanding his own power. Thanks Obama.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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