clash of the Stephens

I'd like to take this moment for an honorary finger-wagging, ala Stephen Colbert. (The following should be read with fake newscaster outrage and contempt.)

I'm wagging my finger at you, Mr. Stephen Johnson, head of the EPA for denying my state rights! You, Mr. I-don't-Care-About-the-
Environment-I'm-Just-Warming-the-Seat-They-Gave-Me, just give my state the rights it needs and deserves to lead this country in all things green, clean and renewable!

If you'll remember back in April, the Supreme Court decided that the Bush administration was totally wrong about the EPA not having the authority to govern greenhous gas emissions (the administration's rationale? Carbon dioxide occurs naturally so the EPA can't restrict what occurs naturally. Yeah, those justices sorta saw right through that.). The justices ordered the EPA to "revisit" its decision not to regulate greenhouse gases - which, coming from the Supreme Court means "cut the baloney, do your job and regulate those greenhouse gases!".

So now that Bush knows, the EPA knows and everybody knows that the EPA has the right to regulate greenhouse gases, they are stalling on giving states permission to set their own, stricter standards, which is basically the administration's way of pouting because it didn't get its way in court. Johnson's reasoning for the delay? The agency must sift through the 60,000+ public comments plus analyze the accompanying scientific data.

Data to analyze? What's there to analyze? Is the Bush administration going to discover that reducing greenhouse emissions is actually worse for the environment? Then again, don't put it too far past them. If anyone could bend the truth(iness)(copyright 2006 The Colbert Report), it would be this administration.

I smell something funny, and it's NOT greenhouse gases. Wagwagwag.