presidential paradigms
Another Executive Order to Bypass Congress
Charles Wilfong, President, West Virginia Farm Bureau
On November 1, 2013,
President Obama issued his
latest executive order. In
this order, he grants himself
sweeping new powers to
control climate change
policy. He knows that he
can’t get his radial policies
enacted through Congress, so
once again, he is bypassing
our representatives on Capitol Hill and giving
himself dictatorial powers to impose totally
unrealistic environmental measures.
This executive order claims that we are
seeing the impacts of man-made climate change
because of extended periods of high temperatures,
increased numbers of severe droughts, more
frequent downpours of rain, an increase in
wildfires, alleged permafrost thawing, ocean
acidification and rising sea levels.
The order calls for new federal measures to
prepare the nation for the effects of purported
man-made climate change. It also calls for more
control of lands and resources through this
process. However, the executive order fails to
make mention of a number of facts. First, it
ignores the effect that solar activity has upon
climate change, even though we are witnessing
an extremely volatile period of solar activity,
and which run in unpredictable cycles. Second,
the executive order fails to acknowledge that
the increase in wildfires is primarily due to
mismanagement of federal lands by the federal
government. Current policies do not allow for the
removal of dead and dying trees or undergrowth.
Third, the order overlooks ѡ