Good lord. I fucking give up.
Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday they will jointly enforce U.S. and international air pollution limits for vessels operating in U.S. waters.
Both the Coast Guard and the EPA “will perform inspections and investigations, and will take appropriate enforcement actions if a violation is detected,” the news release said.
The rules establish limits on nitrogen oxide emissions and require the use of fuel with lower sulfur content. The goal is to protect people’s health and the environment by reducing ozone-producing pollution, which can cause smog and aggravate asthma, EPA said.
[…]
The rules — spelled out in a letter to ship owners and diesel engine manufacturers — also require diesel engines in U.S.-flagged vessels to have an Engine International Air Pollution Prevention (EIAPP) certificate, issued by EPA, showing that the engine meets international nitrogen oxide standards. Certain vessels also are required to have an International Air Pollution Prevention Certificate (IAPP), which is issued by the Coast Guard.
Ship operators must also maintain records on board regarding their compliance with the emission standards, fuels requirements and other provisions of Annex VI.
Annex VI is part of a U.N. Treaty that seeks to reduce pollution from ships. The United States became a party to Annex VI in 2008, and the rules were implemented in the United States through a law called the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
This is not about pollution. It’s about control. About government record keeping. For the purposes of keeping tabs on every aspect of private citizenship. And of course, it’s about taking more money to fuel its ever increasing demand for revenue.
Not a single life will be saved by such measures. The ocean won’t be more pristine as a result. All that will happen is that the government, through its unelected bureaucratic agencies, has justified giving itself permission to further harass the individual and to steal more of his money.
How we got so far off course as a society I will never know. But, if you squint a bit, let me suggest that this sheds a kind of oblique light on the thing.
Progressivism.
the Coast Guard is without doubt the gayest branch of the armed services
You have no idea how horrible a U.S. Attorney can make your life if you accidently flip a bilge pump and cause a sheen of oil on the water. Imagine the worse speed cop ever, but whose ticket book can result in massive criminal and civil penalties.
And now they want to follow you around the world?
And you wonder why ships get registered in Panama and other countries.
the meter maids of teh sea
How we got so far off course as a society I will never know.
Because it’s sadly inevitable. As human society increases in wealth, we also figure out more nit-picky ways to “improve” our lives by making rules and more rules.
Until the proliferation of Circumlocution Offices makes rules and their enforcement an end in itself. Wanna throw all those civil servants out of a job and onto the streets?
Those who the Progressive left consider their mortal enemies have never changed. Only their names do, bourgeois, kulak, “the rich.” All are always simply the small business person, never the truly wealthy or powerful. Those they co-opt, buy off, get into bed with to destroy their common enemy.
From the last link.
As before.
As human society increases in wealth…
Thank Heavens we’ve jumped off of that path! I know I’m very much looking forward to the coming Subsistence Age. It’ll be so pure, so uncomplicated…
Precisely where they topsy-turvy, for this is where it is anything but abstract in the life of a man at work. Far from being “drawn away” from him, this freedom is where law draws toward the man in his fulness.
Lisa Jackson,”We don’t want your business, you dirty polluters!!!”
ahoy here is the enabling legislations
here is the roll call of HR 802 in the House
among the nays is our friend Michele Bachmann but not our friend Mr. Ryan
America’s simpering and cowardly senators however refused to go on the record… “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.”
I’m sure the Chinese will comply, aren’t you?
They’ll just call for pilot services from outside the UN recognized international limit(which will be a legal problem in-and-of-itself as we call for a 200 mile limit, but the UN only recognized 12 miles).
This will lopsidedly only effect US flag vessels, and will serve to hasten the registration of those elsewhere.
happyfeet,
You’re being a bit harsh on the USCG by calling them the metermaids of the sea. They do much more than you might think.
Hung Nguyen is a douchey whore what has deeply impressed upon me the sad truth that “Coast Guard” and “honor” are entirely separate and divisible concepts.
This is my opinion from knowledge of how the left operates in every place where they can exert influence for the betterment of the cause.
An effect of the political nature of General Officer promotions is that those of the more activist and leftist political persuasion will be lifted up during a Democrat administration while during a Republican administration the political aspects are not emphasized. This can skew not just the General Officers but those lower down who looking to rise up.
Wars tend to end the careers of the ones whose rise was only or mainly due to political reasons as it is the final exam for an officer. Can’t bullshit your way to victory over an enemy.
That there are Officers who look to polish the apples of those who are in political power in order to advance their own prospects is due not to the officers who attempt to game the system but due to the left which has twisted every organization to be of use for their own ends.
All services including the Coast Guard have honor and should be honored. Any dishonor should rightly fall on those who have monkeywrenched the system for political gain.
In the aftermath of the Macondo accident the Coast Guard became an organization what actively worked to destroy the livelihoods of the good people what live on the coasts they purport to guard.
I won’t never forget it.
But speaking of eager participants in bumblefuck’s regulatory ass-rape of America.
That’s from a read-the-whole-thing article by a Harvard business professor what rips bumble a new asshole in the pages of the New York Times.
geoffb,
I can only speak for the US Navy, but there are faaaaaar too many flag officers (Admirals); there are more than there are operating ships in fleet!
They could do with half that number, or less. Around a 100 maybe, with an extra 20 for Pentagon/DC duty. Displacing their payroll would make a whole lot of room for some Junior Officers and enlisted Sailors.
Which, the latter two categories tend to concentrate on proficiency and fighting rather than advancing political agendas.
Video on the subject of the particular freedom addressed by the Lochner case.
Go. — Watch it, it’s only 2 and a half mins.
economic freedom is my favorite
Bob,
From this that is a problem due to Congress.
“Like the other commissioned officer ranks, Congress limits the number of General Officers that can serve on active duty.“
Jeebus!
I thought this would be a good day!
it’s in the top 5 this week so far
You have no idea how horrible a U.S. Attorney can make your life if you accidently flip a bilge pump and cause a sheen of oil on the water. Imagine the worse speed cop ever, but whose ticket book can result in massive criminal and civil penalties.
A hazmat “situation” can put a company out of business. And it’s “hazmat” if they say it is.
everything is so damn arbitrary
Claire Wolfe is right, “America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”
So ships that don’t pass emissions will be fined all too hell if they enter our waters?
I fail to see how putting more impediments on trade is going to help our economy right now.
Which is a nice way of saying can we start trying these fucking bastards for treason yet?
did anybody read this what Mr. Instapundit linked a few days ago?
How hard would it be for bumblefuck to use his pliant coast guard meter maid patrol to harass ships going to a not-favored port in a right-to-work state?
Wow.
I suppose I’ll have to stop peeing in the ocean when I drink beer at the beach. Wouldn’t want to be a target of the EPA. Not sure I could swim out into international waters anymore. I’m getting too old.
Damn, and I was having so much fun.