Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.

Richard M. Nixon

The EPA has always been a powerful agency in the Executive branch. They have deployed a myriad of draconian regulations which have eroded property rights and have adversely impacted our economy.

We need clean air and water, this is not in dispute. The issue is the EPA, as presently constructed and operating, is exactly the wrong way to achieve a healthy and clean environment.

One example of the EPA’s draconian overreach is its recent draft of the Clean Water Strategy (CWS). The CWS includes plans for community initiatives and inter-agency coordination within the Federal Government that flow nicely into its Environmental Justice Plan “EJ 2014″. The CWS also includes provisions that expand its reach using the global warming fraud.

Build for the Future – Enhance Watershed Resiliency and Revitalize Communities

In order to maximize clean water protection under current authorities, EPA is making a substantial shift in our programmatic approaches to identify and implement multi-benefit solutions that will help communities plan and be more responsive to changing factors such as population growth, increased urbanization and climate change. A more holistic and systemic approach will facilitate capitalizing on existing programs, tools, policies and available funding to achieve measurable results. A collaborative approach to community-based programs – within as well as beyond EPA – will achieve multiple objectives, break down traditionally stovepipe divisions, and broadly engage local communities in decisions that impact local and state waters. For example, capitalizing on green infrastructure, water/energy synergies and integrated water management are key features in this new approach.

The global warming (or climate change, you know, if it cooler than normal outside) theory can trace its roots to the political and social philosophy of the radical environmentalism. The movement was in search of a scientific theory to aid it its implementation of their agenda and found it in global warming.

Also, the EPA is going to push more green (more expensive, less efficient) technologies:

EPA will develop and implement a renewed strategy on green infrastructure to identify and target the next set of actions that need to be undertaken to promote and support green infrastructure practices. EPA will also develop a framework for encouraging and facilitating more integrated water management approaches at the state and local level, and will support solutions that reduce infrastructure costs and promote more efficient, regionally coordinated resource use. These more integrated solutions, ultimately, lead to long-term sustainability, community buy-in, better water quality, and more robust ecosystem services.

I’m not really sure what a “ecosystem service” is…However, one thing is certain, the EPA is leveraging the myth of global warming and leveraging it to seize much more power and authority:

Key EPA Actions:

• Promote green infrastructure more broadly. Consider policy options to make green infrastructure solutions an available tool for meeting CWA requirements by: ensuring that MS4 permits include cost-effective green infrastructure approaches, including green infrastructure in CSO long-term control plans, considering the incorporation of non-traditional or green infrastructure alternatives in enforcement orders/consent decrees, and other policies to increase adoption of green infrastructure practices;
• Encourage integrated water management approaches. Implement policies and help direct national attention toward more sustainable water management practices that better integrate traditionally siloed areas such as: water quantity, quality, energy requirements, carbon emissions, development and land use at the watershed/aquifer level. Building on synergies within the water sector, integrated approaches can allow communities to more sustainably manage water infrastructure and supply costs and investments and adapt to climate change,
• as well as potentially reduce overall energy consumption, and both utilize renewable energy and/or create new energy sources;
• Encourage states to use their Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF) for projects that will best advance these policies and are consistent with EPA’s sustainability policy. Additionally, EPA will continue to work with States to ensure that all CWSRF programs meet the mandated requirement to use at least 20% of FY 2010 appropriated funds for green projects such as green stormwater infrastructure, water efficiency projects, energy efficiency projects, and other innovative environmental projects;
• Develop policies that will facilitate greater collaboration and accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies that help deliver clean water such as energy self-sufficient wastewater treatment;
• Develop comprehensive approaches, including all of the above actions, to help transform previously degraded urban waters into community assets by:

1. Linking environmental programs with existing priorities such as economic development;
2. Adding environmental components to economic programs in pilot areas
3. Facilitating water clean-up efforts; and
4. Work to ensure the overall sustainability and climate resiliency of drinking water and wastewater utilities by better incorporating adaptation and mitigation strategies and other cost-efficient infrastructure practices into planning and operations.

When you start with the flawed idea that CO2, the gas all of us exhale, is a ‘dangerous pollutant’ you can regulate nearly everything.