Newsletter (May 2, 2012)

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EPA Official’s “Crucify” Comment Reveals an Unbiblical, Unconstitutional Vision of Government

by E. Calvin Beisner

The story of former federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz’s having likened his regulation enforcement philosophy to that of the ancient Romans—enter a town, crucify five men, and thus intimidate everyone and ensure compliance for years to come—hit the media, cyberspace, Congress, and the Obama Administration hard last week.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, delivered an extensive floor speech condemning Armendariz’s shocking remarks and promising an investigation into EPA’s enforcement philosophy. He described in detail abusive enforcement actions by EPA in three cases in Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania—cases in which EPA eventually backed off, but not before causing significant harm to the businesses they’d targeted.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee announced that it would investigate ….

Armendariz apologized, saying, “It was an offensive and inaccurate way to portray our efforts to address potential violations of our nation's environmental laws. I am and have always been committed to fair and vigorous enforcement of those laws.” But the fact that his apology came two years after his original remarks and only under pressure not only from critics but also from his own superiors in the EPA makes his apology less than fully credible.

On Sunday, April 29, Armendariz resigned, saying in a letter to Jackson, “I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from its important work.” Inhofe said the resignation would not stop the investigation he’s launching.

Many EPA critics aren’t buying Obama Administration assurances that Armendariz’s “crucify” remarks don’t really represent EPA enforcement philosophy. They have good reason. Inhofe’s floor-speech recital of abuses is just the tip of the iceberg. …

“Power tends to corrupt,” Lord Acton famously said, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

EPA has become an ongoing, living illustration of Acton’s insight.

Part of the problem is a changing understanding of the purpose of government. America’s Founding Fathers were committed to the understanding that government existed by consent of the people, to serve the people, not to rule over them. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States vest sovereignty not in any federal or state government but in the people themselves.

Their understanding reflected that of St. Augustine, who in commenting on Genesis 1:28, in which God commanded mankind to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” pointed out that it did not say men were to have dominion over men.

Unfortunately, all too many in American government today—of both parties, and at all levels—have come to see government as ruling over the people. Many in the EPA particularly have come to see it as their task not only to rule rather than serve the American people but also to subjugate people to nature, turning on its head the relationship God designed between mankind and the Earth.

This is part and parcel with the attack on the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28 common throughout the environmental movement. The Cornwall Alliance is committed to restoring to America and the world the blessings inherent in that mandate.

Scripture of the Week

Genesis 2:8–10, 15 (ESV): “And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. … The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Cornwall in the News

Global Warming: Half Politics, Half Religion (David Solway, frontpagemag.com, 4/26/12)
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, the national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation was cited in an article about the inherent political and philosophical flaws of climate alarmism. The use of models, which feed back different scenarios based on the same assumptions, will always turn out the same. Dr. Beisner’s article, “Deep Ecology, Neo-Paganism and the Irrationalism of Global Warming Hysteria” (January 2008), demonstrates exactly that principle.

Evangelical Leader Sees Connection Between Climate Change and Poverty (Michael Gryboski, Christian Post, 4/26/12)
Mitch Hescox, President of the Evangelical Environmental Network, says reversing climate change is part and parcel with evangelizing and caring for the poor. He relies on the oft stated "98% of scientists agree global warming is happening" to support his statement. The study Hescox cites covered only a small group of scientists and asked only two questions (a) whether Earth had warmed since 1850, and (b) whether human activity had contributed significantly to that warming—to both of which, because in scientific parlance “significantly” can mean anything from a fraction of a percent to over 90 percent, “global warming skeptics,” who believe increased atmospheric carbon-dioxide has probably made a very slight contribution to warming, would all answer “yes.”

Cornwall on the Road

Cornwall Alliance National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will be a guest on Janet Parshall’s “In The Market” on Moody Radio Monday May 14, 5:30–6:00 P.M.

Virginia Christian Leaders’ Breakfast Briefing to Address Concerns to
Families at National and State Levels, Including Extreme Environmentalism

The Virginia Family Foundation will host a free breakfast briefing for Christian leaders Thursday, May 10, at Great Neck Baptist Church, 1020 General Jackson Drive, Virginia Beach, VA. Christian leaders and concerned citizens are invited.

Tim Goeglein, Focus on the Family Vice President of External Relations and former Director of the Office of Public Liaison with the Bush White House, will address major political threats to faith and family from within the Washington beltway and around the nation. Cornwall Alliance National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will discuss the economic, political, and spiritual threats of the “Green” movement to society, church, and family, particularly how it infiltrates evangelicalism in the “creation care” movement. Victoria Cobb, President of The Family Foundation, will address issues of particular concern to Virginia families. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and the breakfast and program will run from 9 to 11 a.m. Sign up in advance at www.familyfoundation.org/cornwall. For more information, call Roger Pogge, 804-343-0010, or email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

If I Wanted America to Fail

“If I Wanted America to Fail… I’d start with energy. I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap, abundant energy…. I’d make Americans feel guilty for using the energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their businesses, and powers their economy. I’d [condemn the free-market, which] uplift the poor, establish the middle class, and create lasting prosperity. I’d demonize prosperity itself, so [our children] will not miss what they never had.”

Tips for Earth Stewards

Simple things you can do to make the earth more fruitful, beautiful, and safe.

The Lord made this terrestrial ball, and all the good things on it. Gardening is a pre-eminent example of both enjoying God's creation, and fulfilling our call to subdue the earth. Gardening offers simple pleasures in its intimacy with the unworked ground. The sumptuous smells of the flowers, the savory aromas of earth, the coolness of the water, the raiment of flowering colors, which even Jesus recognized, are all examples of beauties we can enjoy right in our front yard. The joy of watching things grow, the fruit of your labor, reminds each of us of the sanctification the Lord has granted to us, that we may grow to do Christ's work (Ephesisans 2:10). The Earth is beautiful, and can become more beautiful if we work to make it so. There are many ways to enjoy God’s creation. We can go hiking, or swimming in the oceans and lakes, or making snow angels, or a good old-fashioned snowball fight. Keeping God’s blessings in mind allows us to remember and enjoy the wondrous creation God gave us to mold for His glory. It requires work to tame creation (to make nature trails, or snowballs), but it is so we can enjoy God’s creation more fully.

Fun Facts for the Week

In short, of the three favorite “Green” energy sources, solar provides about 0.08 percent, wind about 0.7 percent, and geothermal about 0.4 percent of total U.S. energy. Three others—biomass waste, biofuels, and wood—are carbon-based, meaning they emit carbon-dioxide when burned, which means Greens, if they're consistent, should oppose them. They account for about 0.48, 1.6, and 1.9 percent, respectively, of total U.S. energy.

Recent Significant Developments

Religion & Ethics

The Green Nazi Tycoon Alfred Toepfer (Marc Musser, American Thinker, 4/22/12)
The history of environmentalism (or naturalism, as it was formerly called) is long and dirty. Most poignantly the Nazis took to environmentalism, both in their Lebensraum movement, and their own naturalistic, German, pagan ethics, which were taught to German children. One man in particular, Alfred Toepfer, a German businessman, especially influenced both Nazi politics as an outside supporter and European politics until European Union. The connection between environmentalism and Nazism, as well as other statist movements, is born in materialistic, naturalistic Hegelianism (anti-rationalism), which influenced both lines of thought.

Censored Science (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, 4/27/12)
The lack of coverage on scientific skepticism of catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming by the media is appalling. James Lovelock’s retraction of his climate alarmist views was hardly noticed—and the media are doing it again. Henrik Svensmark, a noted astrophysicist, has released a study correlating astrophysical anomalies to spurts of evolution of life on Earth. The naturalistic scientific community would normally be buzzing with excitement, except that consideration of this theory on evolution requires accepting Svensmark’s well-known theory that the Sun and stars are responsible for climate change.

Law, Regulation, & Litigation

UK Aid Helps to Fund Forced Sterilisation of India's Poor (Gethin Chamberlain, The Observer, 4/14/12)
“Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A number of pregnant women selected for sterilisation suffered miscarriages and lost their babies. The UK agreed to give India £166m to fund the programme, despite allegations that the money would be used to sterilise the poor…. [A] working paper published by the UK's Department for International Development in 2010…. argued that reducing population numbers would cut greenhouse gases, although it warned that there were ‘complex human rights and ethical issues’ involved in forced population control.”

EPA Human Experiments Debunk Notion of "Killer" Air Pollution: Agency Hides Exculpatory Results (Steve Milloy, JunkScience.com, 4/18/12)
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted air pollution experiments on live human subjects that discredit its claims that fine particulate matter kills people.… Of the 41 human experiments, clinical effects were reported by the EPA in only two study subjects. Both of these were controversial.… The other 39 study subjects were exposed to PM2.5 levels up to 21 times greater… than the EPA’s own permissible exposure limit…. No clinical effects were reported for any of these exposures.… Given the significant actual costs of the EPA’s PM2.5-related regulations on society, it is incumbent upon Congress to conduct a thorough investigation of the agency and its PM2.5 claims.”

Politics & Debate

It’s Not Easy Fueling Green (Lincoln Brown, Townhall.com, 4/27/12)
The Obama administration proclaims itself to be friendly to all energy, not just wind and solar, but its actions speak louder than words. It has been antagonistic to fossil fuels, and even some forms of “renewable energy” are not acceptable to it. Take bio-diesel for instance: the Obama administration plans new regulations to hamper bio-diesel production while considering a 50% increase in ethanol fuel mandates, creating an E-15 gasoline.

Will Mitt Romney Recycle George W. Bush's Global Warming Fiasco?
Patrick Michaels, Forbes, 4/26/12
Environmental advisors to former President George W. Bush play leading roles in shaping Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s environmental policies. Those advisors steered the Bush Administrations into costly regulations, subsidies, and vacillating policy.

Food & Agriculture

Natural Climate Change Does More Good Than Damage (Randy Bright, Tulsa Beacon, 4/26/12)
“Aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin has posted an intriguing article on the National Review website entitled, ‘Carbon Emissions are Good.’ Zubrin makes that case that rising CO2 levels actually creates benefits for the planet. He writes, ‘… it is quite clear that they (humans) are raising atmospheric CO2 levels. As a result, they are having a strong and markedly positive effect on plant growth worldwide. There is no doubt about this. NASA satellite observations taken from orbit since 1958 show that, concurrent with the 19 percent increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past half century, the rate of plant growth in the continental United States has increased by 14 percent.’”

Science & Ecology

Sun May Soon Have Four Poles (Seiji Tanaka, The Asahi Shimbin, 4/20/12)
“The sun may be entering a period of reduced activity that could result in lower temperatures on Earth, according to Japanese researchers. Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century in which London’s Thames froze over and cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto. In that era, known as the Maunder Minimum, temperatures are estimated to have been about 2.5 degrees lower than in the second half of the 20th century.”

Is Oil a Renewable Resource? (DrShormann.com, 5/30/11)
The traditional theory on petroleum is that it is a fossil fuel, but a countervailing theory states that it comes not from organic material, but is created abiogenically. The theory has sound critiques of the “fossil-fuel theory” while being scientifically consistent, if not yet proven. It states that heated magma melts rock, which reacts with water and carbon dioxide to make petroleum products. If the theory is true, oil is renewable.

Economics & Energy

Rationally Green (Paul Jacob, Townhall.com, 4/22/12)
Many people think environmental regulations are necessary—as if without them we’d be drinking sludge. Regulations have sometimes stopped unethical and harmful activities, but often at extreme cost. More often, the market will demand ethical action that protects the environment. People don’t want to drink sludge, so suppliers won’t provide it.

Cheap Fracked Gas Could Help Americans Keep on Truckin’ (David Biello, Scientific American, 4/23/12)
The overwhelming supply of natural gas in the United States and the ease of procuring it with hydraulic fracturing technology are raising questions about whether natural gas could be a transportation fuel of the future. Natural gas is not as powerful as gasoline or diesel, but improvements in technology may allow future generations to use it. It remains to be seen if it can compete on an open market.

Resisting the Green Dragon

Order Resisting the Green Dragon for Church, School, or Small Group

More and more churches and other groups are using Cornwall Alliance’s groundbreaking 13-part video series around the country. With its printable discussion guide, it provides full curriculum for a Sunday school quarter. The accompanying book helps teachers and others dig deeper.

Join Cornwall Alliance Facebook Group Page

To keep up with relevant developments, join Cornwall Alliance’s Facebook Group page, where we and group members will post and discuss items daily.

Landmark Documents from the Cornwall Alliance

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., Founder and National Spokesman
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation

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