Regulations Could Kill Your Labor-Saving Home Appliances

From Ernest Istook --

Be prepared to work harder at home. The era of affordable labor-saving devices is threatened by rising appliance costs due to federal energy regulations.

Washing clothes by hand sounds Third World to Americans, but how else does a limited budget handle the sticker shock from such as washing machines and dryers commonly priced at $600 to $1,000? That’s for separate units, not both together.

Nobody saves money by buying more expensive products when the claimed energy savings don’t materialize. That’s because we commonly don’t keep appliances and electronics long enough to close the cost gap.

Even stricter federal energy regulations are in the pipeline not only for washers and dryers but also for refrigerators, freezers, all types of lamps and lights, dishwashers, ice makers, air conditioners, furnaces, space heaters, ovens, stoves and lots more, including chargers and power supplies for cellphones and other personal electronics.

Each product gets its own vast, dizzying array of proposed mind-numbing new standards on power consumption, design and labeling, with details for each variation in which they are sold.

How would you like being told that there’s even more “in Appendix Z to subpart B of 10 CFR Part 430,” as one edict says? Any time your appendices climb to Z, you’re way past being reasonable.

Manufacturers such as General Electric, Panasonic, Sub-Zero and others are petitioning the Department of Energy for relief from the tedious new power-use testing requirements that are the prelude to an avalanche of more regulations.

The mantra from the green energy crowd is that we should ignore higher purchase prices, because we’ll eventually get it back from savings on our electric bills.

But the feds often calculate supposed savings over a 30-year span (sometimes only 9 years) on products that we’re unlikely to keep that long. They wear out, break down or become obsolete. Even The New York Times published a report that the fuel savings from more miles per gallon won’t offset higher auto prices unless people start keeping their autos twice as long as we typically do.

The Consumer Electronics Association told regulators that it’s nonsense to project 30 years of supposed savings when consumers may use an item for only a few months. CEA proposes the industry develop its standards rather than be buried under government dictates. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers touts the improvements already made, such as success in doubling energy efficiency of dishwashers since 1980.

Nothing is ever enough for the green crowd, however.

How about the most common personal appliance: the cellphone?

The common turnover rate for cellphones is every two years, which includes a new charger each time. Bureaucrats claim the industry should standardize chargers for the 200-million-plus cellphones they sell each year. Then people could keep their old chargers when they get a new phone. They have a point there. Lots of us wish that power supplies were standardized, just like electric outlets, regardless of the brand or the product. Industry steps toward that would be surefire winners.

The Department of Energy claims its regulation on power supplies would cost consumers $143 million a year but save us $293 million. Of course, their claimed “savings” include speculative benefits from reducing carbon footprints.

And the chargers are small stuff compared to the requirements for larger appliances like refrigerators and stoves.

Even states are getting in on the act. The Institute for Energy Research reports that 11 states already have appliance standards going even farther than the feds.

Creature comforts like coffee makers, CD and MP3 players, electric blankets and even electric foot massagers may not be as common in the near future, simply because so many people won’t be able to afford the little luxuries of life.

Pick which ones you want and do without the rest. Rediscover the manual toothbrush even though the electric version plus a Waterpik protect your teeth better. Pile up the quilts on your bed. Use a hand egg beater.

The extra costs being added to each item may seem minor, but they add up to a major impact on our quality of life.

It’s not the end of the world, but is this interference with our choices really what our government should be doing? No, it is not.

Be prepared for a possible future of solar-powered clothes dryers. We used to call them clotheslines.

Tax Dollars Blowing in the Wind of Crony Capitalism

We recently posted an excellent article by former Congressman Ernest Istook highlighting the battle we face in the upcoming lame duck session of Congress over a proposed $18 billion extension of the wind-energy production tax credit being fueled by crony capitalism.

For the latest example of wind blown tax dollars and crony capitalism in Ohio we only need to look at the shores of Lake Erie and the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo).

LEEDCo was founded as a non-profit economic development corporation in 2009 as a result of a public/private funded feasibility study for the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force to put wind turbines in Lake Erie. Members of LEEDCo include the Cleveland Foundation, NorTech, the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain and Ashtabula counties.

The projected costs for the 6-9 wind turbines alone is approximately $92 - $100 million. This does not include any overruns of construction costs, the cost of installing the transmission lines to get the power from the turbines to the shore, reworking or updating of the existing power grid to accommodate the wind power and/or the estimated yearly maintenance costs of $5 million as outlined in the feasibility study.

After several failed bills in the U.S. Senate to promote funding for wind energy (Here & Here) by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and after his continued badgering, LEEDCo received an initial $4 million grant in 2012 to fund their Project Ice Breaker. Project Ice Breaker is for research & design engineering on the bases needed for the proposed wind turbines in Lake Erie.

This grant is through the first stage of a $180 million U.S. Dept of Energy sponsored offshore wind power competition.  Along with this, three other N/E Ohio companies with ties to LEEDCo received grants;

• Freshwater Wind LLC (LEEDCo's private developer) $500,000
• Nautica Windpower LLC (A LEEDCo Partner) $500,000
• Case Western Reserve (A LEEDCo Partner) $540,000

Failing to qualify for the full $47 million available for each project in the second round of the grant awards (tax dollar giveaways), LEEDCo was only awarded $2.8 million by the D.O.E. to complete engineering and other related studies on Project Ice Breaker.

But this setback is not about to stop LEEDCo. Lorry Wagner, president of LEEDCo, acknowledges the setback but reaffirms their dedication to forcing this project through.

In 2012 the left-leaning Brent Larkin of the Plain Dealer was surprisingly critical of the wind turbines in Lake Erie and again questioned the cost & sensibility of the turbine project....

There are 534,899 households in Cuyahoga County. Installing five or six wind turbines seven miles out would generate enough power to light a maximum of 6,100 of those households.

The cost is pegged at about $150 million. In Cleveland dollars, that means overruns would push the final figure past the $200 million mark. That doesn’t include annual maintenance costs of about $5 million.

Because businesses and manufacturers always use between 30 percent and 40 percent of the power produced, the wind turbine pilot project would produce about 0.5 percent of the county’s required electricity.

Nevertheless, windmill supporters haven’t given up the chase. Even as business leaders who know how to read a bottom line have quietly backed away, proponents – led by the Cleveland Foundation – have refused to follow the lead of other Great Lakes cities and scale back their grandiose plans. (Emphasis Added)

And this brings us to the wind-blown bile of crony capitalism we see in many of these wind turbine projects.

When speaking of crony capitalism in Cuyahoga County and/or Ohio, somewhere along the line you will find some sort of non-profit group being controlled or influenced by the cabal of corporate charlatan's at The Cleveland Foundation & the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP).

Taking a look at the original Great Lakes Energy Task Force and LEEDCo the non-profit economic development corporation specially created for wind turbine project, you will see it is nothing more than a shell game of incestuous relationships fleecing the public with our own tax dollars.

The Cleveland Foundation and Nortech, a non-profit front group for the GCP, both served on the Great Lakes Energy Task Force. The task force in turn hired JW Great Lakes Wind LLC to create a wind feasibility study for turbines in Lake Erie.  

In creating this wind feasibility study for the Task Force, JW Great Lakes Wind LLC had the "help" of the Great Lakes Wind Energy Center, a front group for the Cleveland Foundation pushing for turbines in Lake Erie. 

From this wind feasibility study for the Task Force, paid for partially with public money & created with the help of groups tied to the Task Force, the non-profit Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) was created by the Task Force to oversee the push for wind turbines in Lake Erie.  

With a quick click here, you will see many of the Board members of the Task Force that created LEEDCo, are now Board members for LEEDCo.

The non-profit LEEDCo hired Bechtel Development Company, Inc. (Bechtel), Cavallo Great Lakes Ohio Wind, LLC (Cavallo) and Great Lakes Wind Energy, LLC (GLWEnergy) to work on the project.

Bechtel, Cavallo and GLWEnergy have formed Great Lakes Ohio Wind, LLC (GLOW), the company that will own and develop the project.

With only the tip of the corporate cronyism pointed out in just this one "wind" project in Ohio, do you really need more reasons as to why Speaker Boehner & the upcoming lame duck Congress should reject extending the $18 billion Wind Energy Tax Production Credit?
 

Tax Dollars Blowing in the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit

It appears most of the 'green' energy being created by these tax-payer funded wind-energy production tax credits is the 'green' fueling up the pockets of a select few crony capitalists.

When done reading the below, please click here to read about the crony capitalism infecting the wind turbine efforts on Lake Erie.

From Ernest Istook --

Crony capitalism plans are so lucrative for a select few that they are hard to kill. Those who get rich make generous campaign contributions, hire lobbyists and run massive public relations propaganda campaigns, using the billions of our tax dollars that they receive.

One “temporary” measure — the wind-energy production tax credit (PTC) — has received eight “temporary” extensions since 1992 and now backers want to add several years more. After 20 years of soaking taxpayers for billions of dollars in subsidies and raising electric bills, it’s overdue for the PTC to end. It expired at the end of 2013, yet some lawmakers want to give it new life, plus an additional $18 billion, during the post election lame-duck session of Congress.

Typically, those getting the money boast of being job creators or “green energy” saviors who will save our planet from roasting owing to global warming. They omit that the job numbers are inflated, often temporary and often filled by overseas vendors.

They also omit that taxpayers are paying twice — through taxes and through higher electric bills. Green energy is not cheap and not affordable. If it were, green energy would not need subsidies.

To maximize chances of backroom deals and minimize public accountability, the fate of the PTC will be decided as part of a tax package in the lame-duck Congress, when wheeling, dealing and political horse-trading are at their worst. That’s because Congress will have two years before facing the voters again. Departing senators and House members won’t have to face voters at all.

Green energy sounds good and polls well — until people learn how much it costs them. The Congressional Research Service reports the annual cost to taxpayers of green grants and tax subsidies is $40 billion. That’s only part of the picture, however. It also raises your electric bill because wind simply is less efficient than generating power from fossil fuels. And less consistent.

The managing editor of Environment and Climate News, James M. Taylor, citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration, writes, “Data show nine of the 11 largest wind-power states are experiencing skyrocketing electricity prices, rising more than four times the national average.” Those states are: Colorado, up 14 percent; Idaho, up 33 percent; Iowa, up 17 percent; Kansas, up 29 percent; Minnesota, up 22 percent; North Dakota, up 24 percent; Oregon, up 15 percent; South Dakota, up 26 percent; and Wyoming, up 33 percent.

These increases come even after federal taxpayers absorb some of the higher costs of wind energy by giving producers a subsidy of 2.3 cents for each kilowatt-hour generated. They’ve had this benefit for 20 years, but still clamor to revive the PTC, which expired at the end of 2013. Sponsors not only want it restored, but to make that retroactive to 2013 and to extend it through 2017. That would carry an $18 billion price tag.

Since 1999, the PTC has been renewed eight times, and three times the extension was retroactive. It had expired but was resurrected. Three resurrections is more than the rest of us get. The PTC doesn’t deserve a fourth.

In the lame-duck Congress, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, is leading the push to revive the PTC. Fortunately, House members, such as Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, Michigan Republican, have been unwilling to include that in the tax package that will be considered. It’s vital for House members to hold the line.

But the cronyists haven’t gone away. Their position is illustrated by how billionaire Warren Buffett explained his investments in wind power, “We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”

Congress should resist all the pressures and let the thing die. Wind power is fine — so long as its backers don’t seek special favors. If it’s so expensive that 20 years of subsidies aren’t enough to make it competitive, then the sponsors need to improve their technology. They also don’t deserve the state-level mandates that force utilities to buy wind-generated power from them.

It’s overdue that we embrace free enterprise and abandon crony capitalism. We’ll have less national debt, and consumers will benefit from more affordable energy.

• Ernest Istook is a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma. Get his free email newsletter by signing up at eepurl.com/JPojD.

The EPA: An Out of Control Government Agency

As the EPA tries to systematically impose their will on every aspect of your life in trying to make air and water cleaner than God himself ever intended - it appears these out of control green energy goose-steppers stepped into a knee deep pile of their own!

Coming out at a recent congressional hearing we see that not only are their policies a fraud, but the whole agency is an out of control fraud!!!

From USA Today -- 

For years, a senior Environmental Protection Agency employee viewed pornography at work for up to six hours a day. Managers entered fraudulent pay records for work-from-home employees who did no work. A top EPA personnel manager arranged for paid internships for friends and family — and bonuses for her own daughter. Another employee was paid for more than a year after moving to a nursing home.

Those are among the allegations aired Wednesday at a congressional hearing into whether the EPA is capable of policing itself in the aftermath of the John Beale case.

Beale, a former deputy assistant administrator, was convicted last year of theft after he took an EPA paycheck and travel expenses for 13 years while falsely claiming to be out of the office serving as a CIA agent.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Beale's deception was "just the tip of EPA's fraudulent iceberg" and convened the hearing to figure out whether there are systemic management problems at the agency.

The most serious allegation came from investigator from the inspector general's office who testified she was assaulted while questioning an employee of the Office of Homeland Security, an EPA unit unrelated to the Cabinet department. Special Agent Elisabeth Heller Drake said Steven Williams, an EPA senior intelligence adviser, physically obstructed her as she attempted to investigate and that she would have arrested him if he wasn't a government official. Williams did not respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., called the October 2013 incident "one of the most disturbing things I've heard in 17 years in Congress. ... This is not part of your job description to go through that kind of hell."

The U.S. attorney's office declined to bring assault charges, and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy put a halt to the inspector general's investigation four days later, citing "discord, distrust and conflict" between the two offices. She also asked an outside inspector general to investigate the incident.

EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said the incident "is an isolated instance and does not represent the manner in which the EPA and its Inspector General work cooperatively on a daily basis." She said the administrator called off the investigation "to ensure the safety of all EPA employees" and consult with outside agencies.

EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe told the committee that the EPA has cooperated with 2,600 inspector general audits and investigations since 2009. "The overwhelming majority of the approximately 16,000 EPA employees are dedicated, hardworking, professional public servants — a point on which I know the Inspector General agrees with me." He said he would instruct the Department of Homeland Security to turn over documents related to the investigation Wednesday.

Among other incidents the committee is investigating:

• An unnamed high-level civil service employee had 7,000 pornographic files on his work computer and visited pornographic websites two to six hours a day since 2010. The Justice Department is investigating.

• Office of Administration Director Renee Page sold jewelry and weight loss products from her office during business hours, according to an inspector general's report. The report said she also hired 17 family members and friends as interns, and that she arranged for her daughter, also an EPA employee, to get a cash bonus out of her budget. Page did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

• An EPA employee with a work-from-home job did no work for five years — and still earned a total of $600,000 and performance bonuses. She retired after an inspector general investigation.

• Another unnamed employee kept getting regular paychecks for more than a year after moving to an assisted living facility. The Justice Department is investigating.

OHIO COAL : More Insanity from the EPA

Targets in the EPA's cross-hairs: the eggs industry, our Way of Life Act, and now the coal industry. 

From Ohio Coal Assoc.:

MEDIA STATEMENT: Ohio Coal President Mike Carey

‘EPA Administrator: Obama Coal Rules will Kill Industry’

Columbus, Ohio (June 5, 2012) – In video footage released by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe yesterday evening, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Curt Spalding said the Obama administrations air regulations will kill the coal industry.

“This video is powerful. It explicitly shows the level of understanding of senior EPA officials that President Obama is trying to vanquish an entire industry,” said Ohio Coal Association President Mike Carey.

The footage was filmed at Yale University at “Beyond Pesticides’ 30^th National Pesticide Forum” held March 30-31, 2012.

Mr. Spalding, a Region 1 EPA Administrator said:

“Lisa Jackson has put forth a very powerful message to the country. Just two days ago, the decision on greenhouse gas performance standard and saying basically gas plants are the performance standard which means if you want to build a coal plant you got a big problem. That was a huge decision.”

“You can’t imagine how tough that was,” Spalding continued. “Because you got to remember if you go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all those places, you have coal communities who depend on coal. And to say that we just think those communities should just go away, we can’t do that. But she had to do what the law and policy suggested. And it’s painful. It’s painful every step of the way.”

Watch the video here.

“Coal provides nearly 86 percent of our electricity in Ohio with reserves lasting an estimated 250 years. Destroying our industry, as planned by President Obama, would decimate Ohio because our economy relies on an affordable and abundant supply of electricity to power economic sectors like manufacturing,” said Carey.

The Obama administration’s new air standards would prematurely force the retirement of more than 140 coal-fired electricity generating units from 19 states by 2015. Senator Inhofe is sponsoring a resolution (S.J. Resolution 37) that would disprove EPA’s new standards.

###

Mike Carey is available for media interviews by request. Please contact Mike Carey directly if you would like to schedule an interview: 614-228-6336 / Media Contact: Matthew Henderson / Cell: 614-499-6602

THE AMERICAN “WAY OF LIFE ACT": GREEN AND PAINFUL

Last week, it was the federal government attempting to control the egg industry. Its agenda: to strangle the egg industry with regulation. Today, it’s revelations on video about the EPA’s intention to control your entire “Way of Life.” From CNSnews.com:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) released a video montage of Obama EPA Regional Administrators longing to impose a green “Way Of Life Act” on Americans through the regulatory regime of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Regional Administrators talk of how they plan to “crucify” domestic energy producers, make their businesses “painful every step of the way,” or otherwise compel a green way-of-life. . . .

“The purpose of this video is to get to know President Obama’s “green generals” – the regional administrators – who are going into battle for the Obama-EPA, working hard to force a green “way of life act” in regions across the United States.” . . .

[The former Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz says on video]: “[U]nfortunately I don’t have a Way of Life Act [that] I can enforce but at the same time EPA isn’t toothless and we do have certain things that we can enforce with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Tomorrow (June 6, Weds.), the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing on the EPA. It’s a large Committee, but here are three recommended calls:

Fred Upton, (R-MI) Chairman: PH: (202) 225-3761 | Fax: (202) 225-4986 / Link to Facebook, Twitter, etc. here

Henry Waxman (D-CA) Ranking member: PH: (202) 225-3976 | Fax: (202) 225-4099 / Link to Facebook, Twitter, etc. here

Bob Latta (R-OH) (the only committee member from Ohio) PH: (202) 225-6405 / Link to Facebook, Twitter, etc. here

Stop the Plastic Bag Tax in Cuyahoga County & City of Cleveland

Working to collaborate and impose their Nanny-State, Enviro-Goon beliefs on us,  Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Sunny Simon & City of Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone are teaming up in attempts to create a plastic bag tax at the City and County level.  

From the PD -- 

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County want to work together to get rid of plastic grocery bags rather than fight over who has the power to restrict them.

City Councilman Matt Zone and County Councilwoman Sunny Simon -- along with the county health department, solid waste district and community activists -- will meet Friday to start hammering out how, exactly, to reach that goal.

Zone has considered a city-wide ban. Simon said in February she wanted to propose a countywide 5-cent tax for each bag provided by restaurants and stores. The stores would collect the fee along with sales tax, and the money could pay for education or environmental clean up.

Simon's proposal raised questions about whether the 17-month old county council, the product of a government reform movement, has the power to pass laws that apply inside the borders of the county's cities.

"I'm not going to do anything that's going to create unrest and litigation," Simon said. "I want to work collaboratively with cities and find common ground to implement. . . a bag ordinance that's hopefully going to satisfy the residents and the businesses in the county."

A self-described passionate defender of the environment, it is simple, Simon is willing to stretch the limits of her perceived power to push her progressive agenda.

While Simon says she doesn't want to create unrest and litigation, with Ohio being a "Home Rule" state, she is clearly testing the waters to see how much authority the new county council has in mandating on the political subdivisions within its' boundaries in the form of regulation and increased taxing powers.

Quoted in an earlier PD article on the proposed plastic bag tax, Sunny delightfully stated....

"I really want to do the research and be careful," she said. "This is something that's going to be testing the waters. With this new government and the charter, how far can we go to impact residents' lives?"

The convenient and cozy county/city collaboration on the proposed plastic bag tax is more than just a plastic bag tax.

This is a step closer to big government regionalism through Agenda 21 type sustainability programs. Furthermore, this sets a bad precedent by creating an avenue for Cuyahoga County Council to opening the start taxing anything deemed unsafe for the environment. Or even more....

- Take Action Now - 

First contact Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Sunny Simon and City of Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone to voice your opposition to their proposed plastic bag tax.

We then need to reinforce the message by contacting Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Council President Martin Sweeney at the city level.  At the county level, please voice your opposition to County Executive Ed Fitzgerald and County Council President Ellen Connally.

Contact Info

Cuyahoga County Council

County Council VP Sunny Simon
Office: (216) 698-2035
Fax: (216) 698-2040
Email: ssimon@cuyahogacounty.us

County Council President Ellen Connally
Office: (216) 698-2023
Fax: (216) 698-2040
Email: ceconnally@cuyahogacounty.us

County Executive Ed Fitzgerald
Office: (216-443-7178
Email: Click Here 

To find your Cuyahoga County Council Member, click here.

City of Cleveland Council

Councilman Matt Zone
Council Office: (216)-664-4235
Ward Office: (216)939-1717
Email: council15@clevelandcitycouncil.org

Council President Martin Sweeney
Office: (216)664-2942
Fax: (216)664-3837
Email: council18@clevelandcitycouncil.org

Mayor Frank Jackson
Office: (216)664-3990
Email: Click Here

To write a letter to the Editor of the Plain Dealer opposing the plastic bag tax, submit online form at  www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/lettertoeditor.ssf or email to: letters@plaind.com.

New legislation to counter EPA attempt to Regulate Farm Dust

Trying to make air cleaner than God ever intended -- The EPA!

From The Voice of Agriculture --

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 13, 2011 – New legislation introduced by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating naturally occurring farm dust is welcome news for the nation's farmers and ranchers, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

"Regulation of farm dust by EPA could severely hamper the ability of farmers and ranchers to meet the world’s food needs," said AFBF President Bob Stallman.

EPA is reviewing existing regulations for particulate matter, which includes soot and dust. Soot is generated by car emissions and factories; dust occurs naturally.

According to Stallman, planting and harvesting crops, livestock moving from place to place and people driving down dirt roads are just a few of the ways dust occurs naturally on farms and in rural areas.

"The current rules pertaining to dust are adequate," said Stallman. "Increased regulation of farm dust could result in decreased productivity and higher food prices, coupled with lost jobs in the rural economy. Moreover, the scientific basis for establishing such regulation has been called into question and it has not been demonstrated that the benefits of EPA regulation would outweigh the costs."

The new legislation introduced by Johanns prevents EPA from making dust regulations even more stringent, while taking health concerns into consideration.

"State and local governments would have the authority to regulate dust in localized areas if necessary," Stallman explained. “But a national standard would not be imposed.”

-30-

EPA funding Global Warming Programs in Foreign Countries

Thanks to Matthew Vermillion, Tea Party Patriots / Oklahoma State Coordinator, for the following info on how green energy goons at the EPA have sent over $27 Million to China, Thailand, Russia and other foreign countries to fund the liberal climate change agenda...

From Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) --

OUTRAGE OF THE YEAR: EPA SENDING TAX DOLLARS TO CHINA

July 7, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "Outrage of the Year" - that is what U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, is calling the distribution of tax dollars to China by the Obama Administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to promote its climate change agenda. This information comes from a report released by Congressman Fred Upton, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"As the White House calls Congressional leaders to a meeting to address our nation's debt and spending crisis, a report recently released by Congressman Fred Upton shows that the Obama EPA has been spending millions of taxpayer dollars in places like China - a country we already owe 1.2 trillion - to promote its liberal climate change agenda," Senator Inhofe said. "This is truly the outrage of the year.

"When I became Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2003, I made it a priority to provide greater oversight over how EPA spends our tax dollars. By 2004, EPA was required to implement a new competition policy for awarding funds and maintain a Grants Award Database so that taxpayers could view EPA's spending information online.

"Chairman Upton's report makes use of this database: it shows that EPA has awarded $718,000 to China's EPA to assist with control of air emissions, $700,000 to Thailand to collect methane from pig farms and $150,000 to Interpol for climate change programs. Since 2009, $27 million in taxpayer dollars has been sent to foreign countries."

For Chairman Upton's report on the out of control EPA, click here. To read more about how the EPA is using your money to teach pigs in Thailand how to pass gas in a jar and to fund more liberal climate programs in other countries, please click here.

Below is a YouTube Video of Senator Inhofe with more on the subject (Click for Video Transcript)