Howls Of Inhofe Outrage - How DARE EPA Film Pollution From Wells?!?

[hatrack]

A U.S. senator from Oklahoma suggests that Denver's regional EPA office was out of bounds in using an infrared camera to detect smog-forming pollution leaking from oil and gas sites northeast of Denver. Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican and regular critic of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency's actions reported in a June 20 Rocky Mountain News story "give rise to concern" and threaten the "trust" between regulators and industry.

Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, outlined his complaints in a recent letter to Robbie Roberts, administrator for the EPA's Region VIII office in Denver. In the letter, Inhofe seeks answers to 14 questions about the EPA's activities, including whether it had permission to film oil and gas activities on private property. Inhofe's July 18 letter follows the News' report that a number of top EPA officials, including the head of enforcement from Washington, D.C., took a mid-June tour of oil and gas sites in Weld and Adams counties. The group was armed with a special infrared camera that can detect leaks of smog-forming pollutants - typically invisible to the naked eye - from storage tanks, pipelines, valves and other areas of industry facilities.

The News obtained video of the emissions and posted it on its Web site. One leak in particular drew light-hearted comparisons from one member of the tour to volcanic gases erupting from Mount Vesuvius. Inhofe is considered a powerful ally of the oil and gas industry and has made a habit of irritating environmental groups. He is perhaps best known for suggesting in 2003 that global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Environmentalists viewed Inhofe's letter to the EPA as political interference in the agency's effort to corral pollution sources and another example of the influence the oil and gas industry wields in Congress and the Bush administration.

EDIT

"It is unfortunate that a senator from Oklahoma is using intimidation tactics to derail efforts in our community to protect the children of Colorado from harmful air pollution," said Vickie Patton, a senior attorney with Environmental Defense. Patton noted that Inhofe's criticism of the EPA comes at the same time smog levels in the Denver region have hit summertime highs, with pollution monitors registering levels exceeding public health standards more than two dozen times since late May.

EDIT

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4873596,00.html

Inhofe. What a pantload.

[nickinSTL]

1. yes, how DARE the EPA do its job!

:eyes:

and

:puke:

[babylonsister]

2. So Inhofe would rather stick his head in the sand than acknowledge

the very real pollution problems that exist.... That's what I thought. Perhaps he's brain dead from inhaling too much of said pollutants?:shrug:

[iconoclastic cat]

5. That is the very essence of conservatism. nt

[babylonsister]

11. So all conservatives abhor any pollution standards? I

honestly don't/didn't know that.

[iconoclastic cat]

14. "All conservatives" follow the party line, which is to abhor pollution

standards, yes. If you can find a conservative who is an environmentalist, I dare that person to show up to the next RNC convention and state that belief. They will be rended limb from limb, and probably eaten.

[nam78_two]

9. This is Inhofe -one of the WORST offenders on environmental issues

I would be surprised at anything different from this douche-bag...

He really disgusts me....I was reading this book called "eco-psychology" recently and it talks about a particular type of psyche that actively
hates nature. The Bushies are truly like that. It often seems like its not even abput free markets, capitalism blah blah....

These people seem to hate the environment just for the sake of hating it...bizarre to say the least :crazy:

[waiting for hope]

3. Like this is something new from this asshole....

Environment

Global temperature data contradicts Inhofe's claim that "no meaningful warming has occurred over the last century"<4>Inhofe's views are hostile to the claims of environmentalists. In a July 28, 2003 Senate speech, he said that he had "offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax. That conclusion is supported by the painstaking work of the nation's top climate scientists." He cited as support for this the 1992 Heidelberg Appeal and the Oregon Petition (1999), as well the opinions of numerous individual scientists that he named. In his speech, Ihofe also said that, "satellite data, confirmed by NOAA balloon measurements, confirms that no meaningful warming has occurred over the last century.<4> He did not explain why nineteen of the hottest twenty years on record occurred between 1980 and 2005.<5>

In a 2006 interview with the Tulsa World, Inhofe compared environmentalists to Nazis. He said, "It kind of reminds... I could use the Third Reich, the Big Lie... You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy... A hot summer has nothing to do with global warming. Let's keep in mind it was just three weeks ago that people were saying, 'Wait a minute; it is unusually cool...." He then said, "Everything on which they based their story, in terms of the facts, has been refuted scientifically."<6> In the interview, however, Inhofe offered no scientific references to support his claims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Inhofe#Environment

He has disillusions - and he's an asshole to boot. How and why these nut jobs get elected is beyond me....

[Why Syzygy]

4. K&R

Are there no crooks? Cannot a dishonest man be found?

[Warpy]

6. Shit, if industry were ever TRUSTWORTHY

we wouldn't need regulatory agencies! The point is that they are NOT and need the government to represent the people to prevent them from poisoning us or worse.

Inhofe is just a typical pubbie shit for brains blatherer who doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about 100% of the time.

[tanyev]

7. Oh dear, "threaten the trust between regulators and industry".

Excuse me, Senator, but I thought there was supposed to be a trust between regulators and the public they serve.

[phantom power]

16. He's using "trust" int the Republican sense of "corruption"

Up is Down, Slavery is Freedom, Corruption is Trust, yada yada...

[LaurenG]

8. Inhofe

*cue music* We see your true colors shining through...

[tulsakatz]

10. Inhofe is just one more Republican asshole!!!

He cares more about money than people.....and this proves it!

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. Read a little bit about Tar Creek

in Northeast (J)Oklahoma and pay particular attention to Inhoff's role and direct lack of involvement and advocacy on behalf of superfund pollution victims in his own state. It is a far better indication of just how callus and uncaring he is than anything he can ever say. THe only thing that seems to matter to him is money. The man sued his own brother over the family inheritance.

[China_cat]

13. Time for the people to bring up a history lesson.

Donora, PA

[rulvy]

15. Plain view

In Criminal cases drug-sniffing dogs, binoculars, and heat imaging is all considered acceptable under the fourth amendment. This is more important than the privacy interest an individual might have in his suitcase or his house. What privacy interest does the refinery (or "oil and gas site") have in the toxic and/or polluting plumes emanating from its facility?

Additionally, it is their trash. They are throwing it out into the atmosphere. There is no privacy interest in what one throws out.

I live in Texas, and thank God for the Oklahoma Senators. Without them, Texas would have the two worst senators. But Cornyn and Kay Bailey sure give Inofe and Coburn a run for their money when it comes to who can be least intelligent and protect the public the least.

[phantom power]

17. But Mr. Inhofe, if they're innocent they've got nothing to fear...

I thought Republicans love to use that line. Don't they?

[YankeyMCC]

18. This has got to be clear evidence of insanity

it's ok to spy on private citizens but not film corporate pollution??? He's either insane or just plain STUPID!

[mom cat]

19. Major projectile hurling

:puke:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

20. he's one of the very worst.

wasn't this the guy who said he was "outraged by the outrage" of Abu Ghraib, or was that Hunter, I always get my fascists mixed up.

[pacalo]

21. Inhofe, CHAIRMAN of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee...

Another chapter from the destructive, bizarre thinking of the Bush cabal:

[Javaman]

22. Ya see, if those dang EPA fella's didn't have that infernal infra-red

contraption, the water and air would be just fine.

They hate America!

Inhofe needs to take his meds and be put in a home.

[DemsRBetterLovers]

23. so NOW hes against domestic spying?

Its the pot calling the kettle black, folks.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. Beat me to it. n/t