Yeah, OK, uh huh
(NY Times) On the heels of the Senate’s passage of a long-awaited farm bill, the Obama administration is to announce on Wednesday the creation of seven regional “climate hubs†aimed at helping farmers and rural communities respond to the risks of climate change, including drought, invasive pests, fires and floods.
White House officials describe the move as one of several executive actions that President Obama will take on climate change without action from Congress.
In substance, the creation of the climate hubs is a limited step, but it is part of a broader campaign by the administration to advance climate policy wherever possible with executive authority. The action is also part of a push to build political support for the administration’s more divisive moves on climate change – in particular, the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on coal-fired power plants.
How will they pay for it? Congress has not appropriated the funding. So, yes, a limited step. I love the part about drought and flood, because climate change causes everything, ya know!
The hubs will be located in Ames, Iowa; Durham, N.H.; Raleigh, N.C.; Fort Collins, Colo.; El Reno, Okla.; Corvallis, Ore.; Las Cruces, N.M.; and Davis, Calif.
Hey, my town, Raleigh, will be part of this experiment.
With programs like the climate hubs, the Obama administration hopes to help farmers adapt to climate change while making the case for broader climate regulations.
In other words, this is about politics, not science. Let’s check the USDA page
USDA’s regional hubs will deliver science-based knowledge and practical information to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners within each region of the US to support decision-making related to climate change. These hubs are needed to maintain and strengthen agricultural production, natural resource management, and rural economic development under increasing climate variability. The Hubs will build capacity within USDA to deliver information and guidance on technologies and risk management practices at regional and local scales.
Does anyone get the feeling that this is a Democrat attempt to insinuate themselves into the rural population, which overwhelmingly votes Republican? To make them comply with Far Left politics? There will be lots of “outreach and education”. Think it will be science based, or political “climate change” based?
Finally, how is this a big EO from Obama? USDA had an application process for this, with a deadline to apply by 8/21/2013. Obama is not creating them out of thin air.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Wait. A federal bureaucracy is creating a duplicate office to duplicate work already being done by several other offices?
Who’d expected that?
This work was already initiated following the era of the Dust Bowl. That led to the creation of the local farm bureaus to help farmers cope with how to best farm under differing climatic situations. That program has been in place for over 75 years.
Leave it to gov’t to find something wrong with the current operation and instead of fixing it, (if it needs to be fixed at all) and just create another office.