ADA, Okla., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The following release was issued today by National Association of Royalty Owners:
"A ruling by a federal judge in North Carolina that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrongly declared secondhand tobacco smoke a carcinogen based on 'junk science' reinforces the long-held conviction by the oil and gas industry that many federal agencies often use unproved theories to support politically correct environmental agendas," James L. Stafford, president of the Ada, Oklahoma-based National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) said today.
Stafford said Federal Judge Thomas Osteen of the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that the EPA had wrongly used provisions of the 1986 Radon Gas and Indoor Air Quality Research Act in determining that secondhand smoke is hazardous. Judge Osteen said the EPA publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun, violated the Act's procedure requirements and adjusted established procedure and scientific norms to validate the Agency's public conclusion.
"His findings confirm what America's oil industry has said for years about questionable federal policies supported by 'junk science' relating to wetlands, hazardous waste, clean air, endangered species and other issues," Stafford said.
"The Global Climate Change Treaty concluded in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, is a good example of 'junk science' ruling the day," Stafford continued. "Last April NARO's Legislative Council passed a resolution calling on the Congress to carefully weigh the negative impact of this treaty on the American economy. That same month more than 15,000 American scientists signed a petition urging the U.S. government to reject the Treaty based on their profound skepticism about the science underlying the Kyoto Accord.
"Another example of a bad idea that has the potential to dramatically undercut our domestic oil and gas industry is a proposal by the EPA to classify CO2 as a regulated pollutant, penalizing those who use fossil fuels," Stafford emphasized. "Since fossil fuels supply 85 percent of all U.S. energy, the regulatory and bureaucratic costs to businesses arising from complying with and enforcing federal pollution laws will create an enormous economic burden on millions of American businesses, including the farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma and surrounding states. Yet there is still conflicting evidence of the effect of CO2 on the earth's atmosphere.
"The list of such questionable studies never seems to end, from restrictions on exploration in vast areas of Alaska and other parts of the country to outright bans on offshore production in the Pacific Ocean regardless of the positive record of such sites in the Gulf of Mexico," Stafford said.
"Despite one's perceptions on smoking, the North Carolina decision reaffirms the belief of a vast majority of America's 4.5 million royalty owners that public policy should be based on sound science instead of a rigged report designed to match someone's political and social agenda. Betting our energy supply on such illusions places us in the hands of foreign oil interests and jeopardizes not only our economy, but our security as well," Stafford concluded.
NARO was founded in 1980 as a watchdog organization pledged to fight the Carter Administration's Windfall Profits Tax. Since then, the group has not only maintained Washington representation and statehouse monitoring activities in producing states, but also expanded into self-help education and, through ties with colleges and universities, a far-flung network of seminars.
SOURCE: National Association of Royalty Owners
CONTACT: Patrick Pellerin of National Association of Royalty
Owners, 202-337-5990
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