Bishop Hill The wily Mr Windsor
Nov 18, 2012 Climate: Parliament FOI Chris Horner has uncovered an extraordinary attempt by the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency to hide her emails from public scrutiny. I mentioned Chris's book The Liberal War on Transparency a week or so ago. However, the story of the manoeuvrings of the EPA has now developed legs:
In response to my book, not one but two former fairly senior EPA officials have contacted me to provide the alias used by Obama’s EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, to keep her mail secret. I was told it was “one of the alternate email addresses she used.”
Ms. Jacks on is the “eco-warrior”, “most progressive EPA chief in history” — pushing Obama’s backdoor march (other ways “of skinning the cat”) toward cap-and-trade.
Or, as you may come to know her, “Richard Windsor.” This morning, we proceeded with a request under the Freedom of Information Act (in-boxes don’t close on federal holidays) in order to find out what she was saying in private about her radical plan to avoid public scrutiny.
“Richard Windsor.” That is the name — sorry, one of the alias names — used by Obama’s radical EPA chief to keep her email from those who ask for it.
In response the House Science Committee has launched an inquiry. Interesting times.
Reader Comments (20)
So that's what Trevor Evans learned from the BBC...
Too cryptic. Bad day. Give up.
Good Stuff Bish', great stuff indeed.
it's not that simple:
17 Nov: Detroit News: David Shepardson: EPA rejects bid to relax ethanol mandate
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday rejected a request from eight governors and nearly 200 members of Congress to waive requirements for the use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline, after last summer’s severe drought wilted much of the nation’s corn crop.
The move is a victory for corn farmers who have seen corn prices jump 400 percent in recent years. But it is a loss for pork and beef producers who say the diversion of corn to ethanol raises feed prices and ultimately prices at the supermarket.
Automakers have clashed with ethanol advocates and opposed boosting the percentage of ethanol. They argue that higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline — which may be necessary in order to meet stepped-up minimums for annual ethanol usage — can harm engines in most vehicles on the road today…
***The law was signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush and requires production of increasing quantities of ethanol…
Michal Rosenoer, biofuels policy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, criticized the EPA decision.
“If the worst U.S. drought in more than 50 years and skyrocketing food prices are not enough to make EPA act, it falls to Congress to provide relief from our senseless federal support for corn ethanol,” he said…
The American Coalition for Ethanol praised the decision by the EPA.
“Despite millions of dollars spent by Big Oil and Big Food to shamelessly attack American-made ethanol, it comes as no surprise EPA denied the requests to waive the RFS because the facts are on our side,” said Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the group…
In August, a top United Nations official urged the Obama administration to suspend ethanol requirements as fears of food shortages grew around the world.
The law assures big demand for corn. It is popular in corn-growing states, making it politically difficult to waive the requirements…
By some estimates, Congress has awarded $45 billion in subsidies to the ethanol industry since 1980…
This year, the Renewable Fuel Standard requires the use of 13.2 billion gallons of corn ethanol, the production of which could require using more than half the country’s corn crop, up from 5 billion gallons in 2007.
Next year, the standard increases to 13.9 billion gallons. By 2022, the U.S. must use 36 billion gallons of biofuels, though 21 billion gallons are supposed to be from advanced cellulosic ethanol.
To meet the increasing amount of ethanol required under the law, the EPA has approved use of a higher blend of ethanol fuel called E15. It is 15 percent ethanol, up from the E10 at most pumps today. Just a handful of stations currently sell E15…
Last month General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC approved the use of E15, but only for 2013 model vehicles and newer.
They still oppose the use for vehicles from 2012 and earlier.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121117/AUTO01/211170359/EPA-rejects-bid-to-relax-ethanol-mandate
the most dishonest thing about the following is it pretends this is something new:
18 Nov: BBC: Nick Childs: Defence firms seek broader agenda
A number of defence and aerospace companies have begun to explore how they could apply their skills to help with global challenges like energy shortages, the environment and natural disasters. But is this just a potentially lucrative new market to compensate for stagnating defence budgets?
This week some of those involved in the initiative gathered at a conference in London. One of the instigators, Nick Cook, a former aerospace journalist who now runs a company called Dynamixx, explained how he latched on to the idea.
"It was patently obvious to me that the aerospace and defence sectors had technologies which operated in all segments of the eco-sphere from sub-sea to space," he said. "So why should they not know about the environment and how to go about tackling some of the particularly big problems encapsulated by climate change?"...
Recently, five of the major defence and aerospace companies - US firms Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, and Saab and Finmeccanica from Europe - signed up to a statement promising to look at co-operation to tackle what they called "global challenges", that could include renewable energy, climate change, and disaster relief...
There is, of course, a potentially significant economic incentive. Defence spending globally is still growing. But Western defence budgets are stagnating or declining, and the global market is getting more crowded. On the other hand, it has been estimated that the market for global infrastructure development could amount to $40 trillion (£25trn) over the next 25 years...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20385312#
Despite her best efforts, her public appearances on behalf of the US government reveal a combination of arrogance, self-righteousness, and entitlement that strikes me as truly unique. I cannot wait to read Windsor's emails. Great work, Mr. Horner.
I wonder if Ms Jackson ran the name through Google before she used it?
The first hit it gave me shows her in a whole new light ;-)
graphicconception:
A whacking great find!
While I don't condone it at all, and consider it not just wrong but borderline criminal, it is not extraordinary. A state governor was using a private yahoo email to do state business. The high court of the state found it to be OK.
The US is different; the government does not need to comply with the law. This has been the case for more than ten years. Just one example from dozens; the US government carried out illegal surveilance of people's telephone calls and emails more than eleven years ago. The legislature retrospectively legalised the government spying. Had the spying been legal there would have been no "need" for the legislation to be retrospective.
Richard Windsor - it was the secondhit on Google for me. Priceless.
This must have been her grandfather. Lot of clean outdoor living in his life, and surely fast on his feet, which will likely have passed into the genes: "Richard Windsor served the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Corps of Discovery as a hunter, scout, and woodsman."
Banks should know!
19 Nov: Sydney Morning Herald: Tom Arup: Degrees of devastation: major report warns of drastically hotter planet
The World Bank has warned the planet is on track to warm by four degrees Celsius this century – causing increasingly extreme heat waves, lower crop yields and rising sea levels – unless significant action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In a major report released ahead of the year-end United Nations climate summit in Qatar, the bank says changes associated with four degrees of warming would have dramatic and devastating effects on all parts of the world, including Australia, but that the poor would be most vulnerable…
The report – a snapshot of the most recent climate science prepared for the bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics – says global mean warming is now about 0.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
It says that if current promises by nations to curb emissions are met then it is most likely there will be more than three degrees warming. However, under that scenario it warns there is also a 20 per cent likelihood that four degrees of warming will occur by 2100.
If current promises are not met, then the world is “plausibly” on a path to warm by four degrees this century, possibly as early as 2060, the bank says.
The report, titled Turn Down the Heat, says if the world experiences four degrees of warming it would: (TRY GUESSING BEFORE READING)
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/degrees-of-devastation-major-report-warns-of-drastically-hotter-planet-20121119-29l3c.html
the Bank should be grateful the Australian Prime Minister has their back:
15 Nov: Prime Minister’s Office: Speech to Business Council of Australia Dinner
It’s been observed by some that there are controversial Labor policies reflected in the White Paper – like the NBN, like school improvement, like pricing carbon…
In total around sixty per cent of the world’s GDP is either subject to a carbon price today, or has one legislated or planned for implementation in the two or three years ahead.
International carbon markets will cover billions of consumers this decade. Ask the bankers at your table whether they want Australia to clip that ticket. We’re going to help them get their share…
http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/speech-business-council-australia-dinner
As they say, using a alias shows that for whatever underlyting reason, one wants to conceal one's identity! If I were a 50 something grumpy synical old man trained as an engineer (wait a minute......oh know I am!), I would suggest that Ms Jackson is following in the footsteps of those who, if they are hiding something, probably have something to hide! Well Done Mr Horner for your hard work!
Nov 19, 2012 at 12:53 AM | pat
Oh, is the World Bank going to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Lehman Brothers? Will it too be defunct within 12 months? Too many vested interests wit too many fingers in pies!
Now we get to the bottom of the matter....
When I read your headline, Bish, I wondered what on earth the Prince of Wales had done now (although 'wily' doesn't normally apply, I admit).
Actually, it makes no difference whether it's the Democrats or Republicans in office. Either way, the political class have already decided to introduce cap n trade or some form form of carbon taxation in the US. It's just a matter of time. As usual, the political parasites will continue to gorge themselves on the blood and sweat of ordinary taxpayers. Do as I do but not as I say. Example: Obama tells government employees to cycle to work but what is his carbon footprint everytime he travels? This is why I don't and can't believe in global warming hysteria. Al Gore lectures people about carbon dioxide but leaves his car engine running for over an hour while he gives a lecture? IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri lectures people about their carbon footprint but he himself does nothing to green his own footprint--I mean, he has a so-called hybrid "eco-friendly" car but never uses it, prefering instead to be chaffeured around in a gas-guzzling car. Hypocrites, the whole lot of them. Political parasites that need to be exterminated.
Does anyone believe that anything will come of this revelation?
The Administration will stonewall Congress (again-Fast & Furious anyone?), the news media will ignore that story (or call it racist), and nothing will happen.
Once you have a government that has no shame, a news media that investigates nothing it is not told by the government to investigate, and a majority of voters who are only interested in what freebies the government will give them, you are done.
I feel sorry for people with integrity that work so hard to uncover these crimes because they find the evidence and no one that matters cares. Similarly, the brilliant revelation of the BBC's lies about the conference will accomplish nothing. I really don't know why the people in charge even bother with these coverups. They don't need to. The truth no longer matters. Science no longer matters. The memory hole covers a multitude of sins.
If LIsa Jackson were David Petreus, we would already have all the info we need. But DC scandals, it appears, need to be sexual in nature to get the attention of the FBI.
The solution? Get a tabloid to allege that Jackson used her Richard Windsor alias as a way of communicating with her sadomasochistic partner, Sen. Inhofe....the FBI will be all over this scandal if a flash!
The proffered explanation for this patent illegality: "Her official mail accounts receive too much mail."
You can't make this shit up.
From Politico:
"The name came from that of a family dog when Jackson lived in East Windsor Township, N.J., an EPA official said Tuesday"
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84112.html?hp=r1