Pollution, Politcs and wasting money

I filled my car up over the weekend and was once again shocked by the dramatic jump in gas price. About 10 cents in the past week. The gouging and exploitation of the average American by the oil companies continues unabated. Clearly the Bush and Chaney show will not interfere since their personal gain from the situation is too great. But we all end up paying, not just more for gas, but all the consumables, especially food that costs more to produce and more to process and more to transport when the price of gas increases.

The ripple effect is well known, but the uncaring White House will not make any move to reduce the massive negative impact on our economy and longterm damage it is inflicting. They will not stop the oil company excessive profits and over the top pay packages for a few select business leaders. Rather they find more ways to cut money from cancer research and other truly valuable programs to fund the unneeded, unjustified and unwinable war in Iraq.

Then, just to put a cherry on it, the US goes and puts tariffs on China. This is a smart move against the largest economy in the world, who we owe a fortune and who is rapidly becoming the true new world superpower. It would be more useful if the government properly tested the wheat products we by from China (and elsewhere) to make sure they are free of poisons that have killed ours pets and who knows what damage they may be causing to humans. What would be even better wold be to help our farmers grow enough wheat here at an affordable price so that we do not need to import wheat products in the first place. But that would require taking care of global warming which they do not believe exists.

On a brighter note the Supreme Court put some brakes on the Bush relentless attach on our environmental protections as reported by UPI today Monday April 2, 2007:

"U.S. states and environmental groups seeking regulation of auto and power plant emissions that add to greenhouse gases won two major victories .

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can regulate automobile emissions that produce greenhouse gases and also voted unanimously to order a lower court to take another look at a ruling that allowed utilities to put more pollution into the air overall.

In its vote along liberal-conservative lines on the Massachusetts auto emissions case, the high court said the EPA must justify why it decided not to regulate the emissions under the federal Clean Air Act when it has the authority to do so, The Washington Post said.

In the power plant opinion, the justices ruled to set aside the lower ruling favorable to Duke Energy Corp. in a pollution permit dispute stemming from the company's upgrade of several power plants.

The ruling appears to favor measuring power plant emissions on an annual basis rather than the hourly rate favored by Duke Energy. The hourly rate would allow Duke to run the plants for longer periods thus producing more pollution overall."

Count one for the little guy!