EPA Continues Crackdown On Glass Manufacturing

The Environmental Protection Agency continued its crackdown on the glass manufacturing sector Monday.

The nation’s largest glass-container manufacturer has agreed to spend an estimated $37.5 million on reducing pollutant emissions after reaching a settlement with the EPA and the Department of Justice. The settlement was the fourth to result from EPA’s initiative to regulate glass manufacturers, which began in 2011.

Owens-Brockway Glass Container, headquartered in Perrysburg, Ohio, and a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois (O-I), must also pay a combined $1.45 million to the federal government and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Equality.

“This agreement will significantly reduce the amount of air pollution, known to cause a variety of environmental and health problems, from the nation’s largest manufacturer of glass containers,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “The settlement, the latest in a series of agreements with the glass manufacturing sector, addresses major sources of pollution at facilities located in four states and will mean cleaner air for the people living in those communities.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Totalitarians Run California

The main problem with the California Legislature is not that it spends your money far faster than it comes in, or that much of it is squandered on absurd programs and on the enrichment of those Californians who work for the state. Those are symptoms of the real problem, which is that the Legislature recognizes no natural limits on its power.

If a legislator doesn’t like something, expect a proposal to ban it. If a legislator likes a particular idea, expect plans to build a bureaucracy to implement it.

The only issues off the table involve fixing those budgetary and governmental problems that the state government is legitimately tasked with handling.

When you see supposedly serious efforts to address a problem, such as the Legislature’s last-minute embrace of public-employee pension reform, a closer look reveals such reform is just a fig leaf covering something else.

This particular reform package does little but was passed after polls showed the governor’s tax-increase initiative (Proposition 30) for November was on thin ice. The pension bill is designed to help a political campaign — “Look, voters, we are serious about reforming government, so go ahead and vote yourself (or your wealthier neighbors) a hefty tax hike!”

So another legislative session comes to a close, and a load of new rules and regulations is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature or veto. California bans and regulations, including those emanating from local governments, have gotten so out of hand that regulation-happy New Yorkers at the New York Times now are making fun of our state.

“Once known for its sunny, freewheeling disposition — a live-and-let-live sensibility rooted in Western ideals and relied upon by generations of surfer dudes and misbehaving Hollywood stars — this region has long been as regulated as anywhere,” the Times reported recently. “Lately, however, cities, school districts and even libraries have been outlawing chunks of what used to pass here for birthright at a startling clip.”

Via: CA Political Review

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OBAMACARE REDEFINES 'FULL TIME' EMPLOYMENT AS 30 HOURS A WEEK

A year and a half after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, bureaucrats at the IRS and Health and Human Services issued an 18-page report outlining new regulations that will dramatically increase health care costs for small and large businesses alike. 

The regulations, written by an IRS attorney, arbitrarily redefine "full time employee" as someone who works 30 hours a week for a business. Traditionally, most private businesses have defined "full time employee" as someone who works 40 hours a week. With this new regulation, the federal government is now removing the right of businesses to define "full time employee" as they deem appropriate for their unique conditions.

Kevin Kuhlman, Manager of Legislative Affairs at the National Federal of Independent Business, the plaintiff in the NFIB v. Sebelius Supreme Court decision, was not pleased with the new regulations:

This is the latest in what promises to be a nearly-endless amount of regulatory duct-tape, struggling to hold together a bad law that is nearly impossible to administer. The new regulation attempting to define a full-time employee is a classic by-product of the health-care law – more regulation, more red tape, more paperwork. The repercussions of this law and its regulatory jerry-rigging, for the small-business community, are endless.

The Washington Examiner noted that the new regulations will hit small businesses especially hard: 

The IRS rule is key because companies with more than 50 full-time employees must provide health insurance under Obamacare, or be fined. Business groups have been warning that small companies might try to replace full-time workers with part-time help to avoid being forced to offer health insurance in 2014, but the 30-hour full-time definition is likely to undermine those plans.

Via: Breitbart

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Under Obama, 11,327 Pages of Federal Regulations Added

(CNSNews.com) – Over the past three years, the bound edition of theCode of Federal Regulations has increased by 11,327 pages – a 7.4 percent increase from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011. In 2009, the increase in the number of pages was the most over the last decade – 3.4 percent or 5,359 pages.

Over the past decade, the federal government has issued almost 38,000 new final rules, according to the draft of the 2011 annual report to Congress on federal regulations by the Office of Management and Budget. That brought the total at the end of 2011 to 169,301 pages.

That is more than double the number of pages needed to publish the regulations back in 1975 when the bound edition consisted of 71,244 pages.

The figures were released on Monday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., when the business federation held its annual Labor Day briefing on the state of the economy, obstacles to job creation and the burden of regulations on the labor market.

Randy Johnson, senior vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, distributed a handout of a Congressional Research Service analysis of a 2008 study commissioned by the Small Business Administration that estimated the annual compliance price for all federal regulations at $1.7 trillion that year.

Seventy percent of the regulations were economic, accounting for $1.236 trillion of the annual cost. The other regulations were, in order of cost, environment regulations ($281 billion), tax compliance ($160 billion) and occupational safety and health and homeland security ($75 billion).

“I think these kinds of figures, if you put yourself in the place of a business person you’ll find them fairly mindboggling,” Johnson said.

Economists with the Chamber also analyzed the OBM’s report on the study, calculating that if every U.S. household paid an equal share of the federal regulatory burden, it would mean a $15,586 tab for each household in 2008.

Ronald Bird, economist with the USCC, told CNSNews.com that the 7.4 percent increase in pages of regulations during the first three years of the Obama administration is higher than the increase over the first three years of the George W. Bush administration (2001, 2002, and 2003) when the publication grew by 4.4 percent.

Via: CNS News

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Mitt Romney: President Obama Has ‘Admitted Defeat’ On The Economy

This hits pretty close to the mark, if you've been listening to what Obama has been saying these past few months.

The Hill:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Saturday of giving up on trying to fix the economy, saying he had "admitted defeat."

In his weekly podcast, Romney pounced on a recent government report, which found that the unemployment rate rose in 44 states last month.

He accused Obama of blaming the "stalemate in Washington" instead of working to boost job creation.

With millions of Americans hurting like never before, the President has admitted defeat. With five months to go before his term his up, he's saying he won't even try anymore," Romney claimed.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president argued that he has the executive experience necessary to turn the economy around.

"I've led companies. I've overseen an Olympic Games. And I've governed a great American state," Romney said. "When people are telling you to give up, that's when you find a way to try harder. When others are pointing fingers, that's when you extend an open hand. And when Americans are hurting and families are falling apart, that's when you put politics aside and find a way to get them some help. In a word, you lead."

Romney will accept his party's presidential nomination in Tampa, Fla. next week.

"Look to Tampa. Two days from now, leaders from all across the country will gather to show Americans that help is on the way," Romney said.

Romney's line is reminiscent of the acceptance speech of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, who repeatedly said, "America can do better. And help is on the way."

The fact is, President Obama has failed miserably in trying to "stimulate" the economy by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars in "investments" for green energy, infrastructure projects, and other temporary measures that have done nothing except drive up the deficit.

Instead if removing obstacles to job creation, the president has put up more roadblocks to recovery. One simply cannot reconcile Mr. Obama's policies with his whining about a lack of job creation. If he can't realize that you can't have stifling regulations and growing uncertainty in the business community because of the effects of Obamacare, and healthy job creation at the same time, we really need to replace our clueless chief executive with someone who can make the connection -- and address the problem intelligently.

Via: American Thinker