In an unprecedented power grab and with a stroke of a pen, President Obama used executive powers to take control of climate change policy in a supposed effort to streamline “sustainability” initiatives. The power grab is intended by design to bypass legislative oversight, pushing a federal agenda on states without the consent of Congress or the people.
The executive order signed by Obama Friday establishes a task force of state and local officials to advise the administration on how to respond to severe storms, wildfires, droughts and other potential impacts of climate change. The task force includes governors of 7 states — not surprisingly, all Democrats — and the Republican governor of the U.S. territory of Guam. The task force also includes 14 mayors and 2 other local leaders.
Out of the 14 mayors and 2 other “local” leaders, just 3 of those appointments are not Democrats. The task force will also conduct seemingly harmless, or even beneficial duties, such as examining federal money spent on roads, bridges, flood control and other projects. In the end, they will have unprecedented say in how structures must be designed, under the guise of making infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and warming temperatures.
“We’re going to need to get prepared. And that’s why this plan will also protect critical sectors of our economy and prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change that we cannot avoid,” Obama said last June, when he first launched a Climate Action Plan.
“States and cities across the country are already taking it upon themselves to get ready… And we’ll partner with communities seeking help to prepare for droughts and floods, reduce the risk of wildfires, protect the dunes and wetlands that pull double duty as green space and as natural storm barriers.”
The White House added in Friday’s statement that even as the United States acts to curb carbon pollution, officials also need to improve how states and communities respond to extreme weather events like last year’s Superstorm Sandy, despite the fact that there is zero evidence to suggest climate change had anything to do with the storm that rocked the Northeast. But government does what it does best, complicate things, and now building codes must be updated to address climate impacts and infrastructure needs to be made more resilient.
Climate change proponents and groups claim that everything from a forest fire to heavy rain is evidence of climate change – despite historical weather patterns and scientific testimony proving otherwise.
Officials in the oppressive EPA released a statement on Friday afternoon praising the order, saying it will be vital in their attempts to help local-level communities “adapt to a changing climate.”
“To meet our mission of protecting public health and the environment, EPA must help communities adapt to a changing climate,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in the statement. “These Implementation Plans offer a roadmap for agency work to meet that responsibility, while carrying out President Obama’s goal of preparing the country for climate-related challenges.”
But critics say the order has the potential to do much more, including:
First, the federal government can and will hold back money to communities unless they meet new federal standards on various unknown, regulated areas in differing mission creep agendas set by the federal government. For example, using new policies that will encourage communities to rebuild to pre-disaster standards rather than stronger ones, because some climate change fanatical bureaucrat thinks the stronger material may harm something somewhere, forget there being to evidence to suggest they are right.
The executive order can easily result in yet another mandate that implements sweeping new changes to land use and resource policies, which will change our fundamental understanding of private property, just as we have seen under Obama in Virginia. In October, the EPA announced another “unprecedented power over private property across the nation.” The Environmental Protection Agency forced through a rule without congressional approval that increased the agency’s regulatory authority over streams, wetlands and other bodies of water under the Clean Water Act.
The power grab also gives the administration almost monopolized control over climate change data, which they can and will use to push a new agenda into every priority of the federal government. The UN climate change report released last month was not adherent to the scientific method, and cherry-picked data favorable to their bias. In the UN report, which was conducted by the IPCC, “the discrepancy between the observed effectiveness of greenhouse gases in warming the earth and this effectiveness calculated by the climate models that the IPCC uses to project future climate change,” said analysts Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger of Cato Institute.
Without widespread proliferating of within the scientific community there will no longer be enough information for others to call so-called facts for what they really are.
Furthermore, the administration will now have the power to create the need for a new internal organization to integrate and coordinate efforts during a government sequestration and other future government shutdowns. Essentially, the move will skirt the power of the purse entrusted to the House of Representatives, which grants the people’s House the ability to reign in executive overreach and tyranny.
Finally, the task force itself is designed to restrict the power and representation of Republican-controlled states, which are the very states that produce most of the nation’s energy and represents most of the nation’s economic growth, while failing liberal states are suffering chronic high unemployment, unrecognized property rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and are overly regulated to the degree they enjoy less prosperity. The task force members are all experts at restricting economic and civil freedom.
Members of this climate change task force include Govs. Jerry Brown of California, Jay Inslee of Washington and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, as well as Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. The task force also consists of several liberal, big-city mayors, such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Houston Mayor Annise Parker. All three are, of course, “progressive” Democrats.
The task force builds on efforts Obama announced for his Climate Action Plan last June, which include the first-ever limits on climate pollution from new and existing power plants. But what is hidden under the hood of these so-called climate chagne efforts, is the agenda formerly known as Agenda 21, or “sustainable development.” The name has been replaced by various others, because the public became aware of these efforts and they were deeply unpopular.
The plan also claims to intend to reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions by 17 percent from 2005 and 2020, and would boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities across the nation for higher temperatures.
Climate change skeptics have argued there is no proven link between extreme events and global warming. Roger Pielke, Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, recently made the compelling case that — heat waves aside — there is little evidence for an increase in extreme events themselves.
A Sept. 2012 editorial in the prestigious journal Nature argued for caution when coming to the conclusion that there is any connection stating, Better models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming.” If the administration had the power they have now, then the information in the Nature journal may never have available.
