FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #26 Ann Marie Loves Wild Places

She's a big paddler, right? Competes in the big canoe race in Auburn every year, right? She's tanned; she likes to be outside, yes?

The Sierra Club sums it up with a different story:

"[AMB] (r)ejects efforts to protect and preserve America’s public lands, national monuments, and public parks, consistently voting to turn over more land to drilling and mining"

Ann Marie Buerkle, Safe Water and Farms

Skaneateles and Owasco lakes, gems among Finger Lakes, supply water to several hundred thousand people in the village of Skaneateles, the city of Syracuse and parts of Onondaga county, and Auburn and suburbs in Cayuga county. Skaneateles water is so clean that it requires only minimal treatment before use.

Ann Marie Buerkle has a summer cottage on Skaneateles lake, and she lives in Onondaga Hill. She depends on Skaneateles water at both places, and she enjoys the lake's pristine beauty during vacations. She was raised and her mother still lives in Auburn.

So, Buerkle has a stake in keeping the watersheds she and her family depend upon clean. It is comforting to know our water supply is safe because Ann Marie Buerkle has a stake in it. 

On the other hand, Buerkle tells us government oversight and regulations are unnecessarily burdening farmers,making it harder for farms to make a profit. We, instinctively, abhor the thought of government impeding farmers who work so hard for their livelihood and our food supply.

Surely the farmers in our watersheds are good stewards of their land, adjusting their farming practices and self-monitoring the surface water leaving their lands. Certainly they are aware that they could so easily contaminate the drinking water of Skaneateles water consumers and thousands more who depend on Owasco. They would never hazard a catastrophe. Would they?

We in Syracuse and Auburn can be totally confident that nobody needs to keep an eye on these watersheds and these farmers. Can't we?

Buerkle has repeatedly criticized the EPA. She would make more lenient the laws aimed toward farmers. She wants smaller government at any cost and she lets us know it at every "town meeting."

She pronounces on the Magic of the Marketplace! How many times have we heard Ann Marie soothe us with this phrase?  

But wait: a 2000 cow dairy farm at the tops of both the Skaneateles and Owasco watersheds, up the hill and not 3 miles from Ann Marie's summer cottage on Skaneateles lake, is leaking manure runoff into nearby streams and onward to both lakes, according to yesterday's Syracuse Post-Standard.  [Ann Marie Buerkle's camp on Skaneateles is near the upper right corner in the satellite image; Twin Birch Farms on Lacy and Benson roads is at the lower left.]

Let us hear from you, Ann Marie Buerkle. How do you reconcile your conflicting loyalties? Can we ever really trust you to protect our precious drinking water?

Then, if you do decide to justify protecting these water sources against certain farming practices, then how can you still support horizontal hydrofracking, potentially far more dangerous, and the damage more permanent, in your district or any district?

Ann Marie Buerkle: Why Do You Want To Punish The Planet?

"Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle to EPA Administrator: Why Do You Want to Punish Job Creators?"

Hi! Blueskygirl is back!

This headline appeared on Lonely Conservative's website recently. What is up with Buerkle and her comrades? Are they capable of thinking only in black and white?

• Can you imagine what the country would look like if only the war hawks were ever in power?
• Or what the country would look like if the Department of Education ceased to exist?
• Can you imagine what it would be like if the American's With Disabilities Act were never passed?
• Or if there were no amendments to the Consititution?

But let's get back to the Environmental Protection Agency, whose job it is to protect the land we love. Since the EPA always runs into opposition, 100% of the time, and there are always compromises, Blueskygirl knows that things are not perfect. People still die every year from lousy water, bad air, toxic chemical spills, pesticides in the food chain and so forth. But it could be so much worse. It is a process of compromise in a world of compromise, yes?

Without the EPA, here is a sampler of local impacts:

• fish-free Adirondack lakes
• a never-remediated Onondaga Lake 
• unbridled horizontal hydrofracking from Onondaga Hill to Elmira
• bigger cancer wards (health industry jobs?)
• strontium-90 (in greater levels) in the milk supply
• wealthier energy executives
• the potential for Bhopals here and not just in the "third world"

The ""magic of the marketplace" sounds wonderful. In a world of greed and avarice, that magic is a cruel tool.

You get the picture, I am sure. You got it years ago unless you think only in terms of black and white. Or unless you are a politician trying to scare people.

So, finally, my point: Why does AMB couch her criticism of EPA in terms of lost jobs? 

It is a dishonest ploy and it is worn thin. 

This Just Slays Blueskygirl!

...that Buerkle has the nerve to show up at the Syracuse Center of Excellence to offer her congratulations to recipients for receiving grants from the EPA to support various projects.  It wouldn't be because she did anything to help the process...that's for sure. She wouldn't know "cutting edge" if it bit her. Or "collaborative atmosphere" either. 


Here is the announcement from Syracuse University:

SyracuseCoE announces $200,000 in TAD [EPA] awards to four Upstate companies

May 17, 2011 

Kelly Horman Rdoski

The Syracuse Center of Excellence (SyracuseCoE) today announced that four Upstate New York companies have received a total of $200,000 in the fourth round of Technology Application and Demonstration (TAD 2011) awards. These demonstration projects are designed to improve air quality and water systems.

The awards are made possible through funding to SyracuseCoE from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The announcement was made at SyracuseCoE headquarters, and recipients were congratulated by U.S. Rep Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25); Edward Bogucz, executive director of the SyracuseCoE; Eric F. Spina, vice chancellor and provost of Syracuse University; Pete King, managing partner of King & King Architects LLP and chairman of the SyracuseCoE; and Rob Simpson, president of CenterState CEO.

The TAD 2011 awards will push the total EPA funding to date for SyracuseCoE technology demonstration projects to more than $1.9 million, a subset of a larger portfolio of demonstration projects funded by the SyracuseCoE in the past. TAD projects are a crucial part of SyracuseCoE’s “innovation ecosystem,” which seeks to fund product and service innovations in clean and renewable energy, indoor environmental quality and water resources through research, demonstration and commercialization phases.

“Small businesses, such as those receiving this round of Technology Application and Development (TAD) awards, are the engines for economic growth in our region. I want to congratulate those receiving TAD awards today for their cutting-edge work that holds the promise for generating jobs here in Central New York,” says Buerkle. “I also want to thank the Center of Excellence for providing a collaborative atmosphere where new technologies can be researched, nurtured, commercialized."   

Syracuse University   http://www.syr.edu/news/articles/2011/coe-tad-awards-05-11.html

Meanwhile back in DC, the Republicans, wholeheartedly including Ms. Buerkle, have been doing the following:

House GOP Readies Severe New Restrictions On EPA

February 2011 In a sharp challenge to the Obama administration, House Republicans intend to unveil legislation Wednesday to ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and expect to advance the bill quickly, officials disclosed Tuesday night.

The officials said the bill would nullify all of the steps the EPA has taken to date on the issue, including a threshold finding that greenhouse gases constitute a danger to the public health and welfare.

In addition, it seeks to strip the agency of its authority to use the law in any future attempts to crack down on the emissions from factories, utilities and other stationary sources.  

Huffington Post   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/house-gop-epa-restrictions_n_817277.html

The GOP's EPA Ambush

March 2011 Can the 112th Congress officially claim the mantle of "most anti-science" ever? So says Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a 36-year veteran of congressional wrangling over environmental matters. Even the contentious fights over issues like the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments pale in comparison to the environmental battles of the current Congress, the 71-year-old lawmaker noted earlier this week: "I've never been in a Congress where there was such an overwhelming disconnect between science and public policy."

It's not just that the House GOP is pushing—and will likely pass—a bill that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating planet-warming emissions and nullify the agency's scientific finding that those gases endanger human health. Congressional Republicans have mounted an all-out assault on the EPA, pushing a lengthy list of measures to handcuff the agency from exercising its regulatory authority. For good measure, they are also trying to slash the agency's budget by a third. 

The continuing resolution—the seven-month measure to fund the federal government, which the House passed on February 19—included 19 separate riders that have almost nothing to do with cutting the deficit and everything to do with derailing the EPA's regulatory clout. These provisions would block the agency from issuing regulations on particulate pollution, emissions from cement plants, and emissions of mercury, arsenic, and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. The riders would also restrict oversight of mountaintop-removal coal mining, block pending regulations on coal-ash disposal, and bar the EPA from moving forward with its plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and other national waterways. 

Mother Jones    http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/republican-epa-ambush

In Its Crusade Against EPA Climate Rules, Has the GOP Gone Too Far?

March 2011  Though she sometimes cracks a knowing smile from the witness chair, [EPA Administrator Lisa P.] Jackson is always her gracious, measured and down-to-earth self when she patiently explains to one committee or another that the Environmental Protection Agency does not now — and will not in the future — regulate cow flatulence, farm dust or milk spilled on dairy farms.

Those familiar with the hearing room-as-theater scenario in the nation's capital are accustomed to these sorts of ploys. But even hardened veterans are questioning why Republicans are persisting with this sideshow act when they have created a serious firestorm on center stage by trying to slash EPA's budget by one-third for the remainder of the fiscal year and threatening to prevent Jackson from deploying the Clean Air Act to curb emissions from heat-trapping gases. 

Reuters   http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/idUS94228031720110317

Barton denies any ‘medical negative’ from mercury, smog, or soot pollution

[You remember Joe Barton, don't you? He did the following, all in one day back in June of '10:  Texas Rep. Joe Barton apologizes for apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward over '$20B shakedown']

April 2011  At a congressional hearing on Friday designed to lay the groundwork for an effort to delay critical EPA toxic pollution standards, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) claimed that reducing emissions of toxic mercury, sulfur dioxide, and soot would not bring health benefits. Though conceding he is "not a medical doctor," Barton offered the "hypothesis" that EPA estimates of the benefits of its proposed air toxics rule are "pulled out of the thin air" because there is no "medical negative" to the pollution:

To actually cause poisoning or a premature death you have to get a large concentration of mercury into the body. I'm not a medical doctor, but my hypothesis is that's not going to happen! You're not going to get enough mercury exposure or SO2 exposure or even particulate matter exposure! I think the EPA numbers are pulled out of the thin air!  

Grist   http://www.grist.org/pollution/2011-04-20-barton-denies-any-medical-negative-from-mercury-smog-or-soot

GOP Would Shut Down Government Over EPA, Planned Parenthood

April 2011  A deal to prevent a government shutdown has yet to be reached, and the clock is ticking ominously toward a shutdown on Friday. After a late-night meeting between President Obama, Harry Reid and John Boehner, sources said a tentative agreement was reached to cut around $34.5 billion in fiscal year 2011–12, according to the Huffington Post (the specifics of the cuts remain secret). But the sticking point concerns GOP 'riders" focused on hot-button issues unrelated to the deficit, such as defunding family planning services at Planned Parenthood and preventing the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions—two highlights of the budget passed by House Republicans in February. 

The Nation   http://www.thenation.com/blog/159761/gop-would-shut-down-government-over-epa-planned-parenthood

GOP's Burr tries backdoor approach to whacking EPA

May 2011 For decades, Republicans have sought to weaken or eliminate government departments and agencies. They're at it again. This time the target is the 40-year-old Environmental Protection Agency. And the 34-year-old Department of Energy. The scheme: Merge them.

The sponsor of the bill that would do this is North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr. So far, he's picked up 15 co-sponsors for a plan that he claims would save $3 billion a year by getting rid of waste and duplication. 

The EPA has been under siege for some time, but never more so than now, with the likes of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his fossil fuel-funded American Solutions for Winning the Future having proposed the complete abolition of the agency earlier this year. Not that Gingrich isn't serious. But, like many of his and other proposals from the right, this one gives Republicans the chance to put forth plans look moderate in comparison because they only take few steps in the same extremist direction even though they have the same ultimate destination.

A decade and a half ago, Gingrich sought to get rid of the Department of Energy. Then and now, Republicans have fought to remove renewable-energy programs from DOE, or failing that, to slash their spending. In the House Republican-passed budget, they axed $438 million in such spending while leaving fossil-fuel subsidies untouched. When temporarily stymied in their ultimate goal, Republican extremists don't go on a despairing drinking binge, they try an end run or another approach. Eventually, they find a position that will get enough votes to ensure passage. And when they've passed that, they'll begin chipping away. Check out abortion legislation for examples. 

Daily Kos  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/06/973708/-GOPs-Burr-tries-backdoor-approach-to-whacking-EPA

Ann Marie's Very RIch New Friends

The following article from American Independent  http://www.americanindependent.com/171511/report-shows-links-between-house-oversight-committee-and-oversight-hostile-koch-brothers  summarizes the pernicious (to all ordinary people of any stripe) early links between home-grown NY Upstater Ann Marie Buerkle and the Texas-grown Koch brothers.  

AMB received a small enticement to get on board with the Koch brothers before the election.  As Chair Darrell Issa's newest briefcase carrier, there is no telling just how much she is getting now, on Issa's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to help defeat new and renewing Environmental Protection Agency regulations. 

Children be damned; health be damned; environment be damned; children in utero be damned. Watch her march!

Report shows links between House Oversight committee and oversight-hostile Koch brothers

11 of the 23 committee Republicans received money from Koch Industries

By Kyle Daly | 02.28.11 | 4:03 pm

The Watchdog Institute, a nonprofit reporting center based out of San Diego State University, has released a report showing connections between a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Koch brothers, Charles and David. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, a San Diego Republican who also happens to be the richest member of Congress with a net worth of $451.1 million, according to a recent Mother Jones review.

This month, Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform published a report critical of federal regulatory practices that it considers “impediments to job creation.” The report several times singles out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an entity whose regulations create costs for small businesses that inhibit job growth. Given the committee’s Koch connections, it may come as little surprise that its report targets the EPA, as Koch Industries has come into repeated conflict with federal and state environmental protection agencies. The most recent flare-up between Koch Industries and environmental regulators comes in the form of a battle between Koch Industries-owned Georgia-Pacific Paper and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection over a wastewater pipeline Georgia-Pacific wants to route into Florida’s St. John’s River [in Rep Corrine Brown's district].

The Watchdog report demonstrates that the parallels between the House committee’s criticisms and Koch Industries’ clashes with federal and state regulators certainly may not be mere coincidence. At least six Republican staffers with the Committee on Oversight have demonstrable corporate lobbying connections, according to the Watchdog Institute. Additionally, 11 of the 23 Republican representatives in the committee received financial help from Koch Industries in the last election.

The largest recipient of Koch Industries contributions overall, with $12,500 since 2008, is Chairman Issa, though two other members of the House Committee have matched the $10,000 in campaign contributions from Koch Industries that Issa received prior to last year’s election: Dennis Ross of Florida and James Lankford of Oklahoma. John Mica, of Florida’s 7th district, which includes part of the St. John’s River (though not the site of Georgia-Pacific’s proposed wastewater pipeline), got $2,500 in campaign funds from Koch Industries. Connie Mack, a Florida representative who may be a potential 2012 Senate candidate (though he still refuses to confirm that he intends to run) received $7,500.

New York representative Ann Marie Buerkle received the smallest Koch donation, getting $250 from Catherine Haggett, Director of Federal Affairs for Koch Industries. Michigan’s Tim Walberg, New Hampshire’s Frank Guinta, South Carolina’s Trey Gowdy and Pennsylvania’s Mike Kelly and Patrick Meehan all received between $2,500 and $7,500 in Koch campaign money leading up to the 2010 election.

With the controversial Koch brothers making headlines lately, House Oversight representatives, especially those like Rep. Mack with a reported eye on higher office, may not be that happy to be tied to them. But as long as Issa and his fellow committee members continue to accept Koch money and advocate deregulation that would conveniently benefit Koch Industries and other energy, petroleum and chemical corporations, they may be stuck to Charles and David Koch. Representatives and staffers on the committee have declined to comment on any perceived conflict of interest.