Well, that’s the headline you’d read from every liberal website if George W. Bush had enacted rules such as this (via the Weekly Standard)
Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government’s latest attempt to protect the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31 to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol substance once found in a variety of spray products.
The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.
Isn’t that wonderful? Punishing those with asthma, forcing them to take more time to go to the doctor for a prescription (which costs money), then going to the drug store and paying more for inhalers that help them breathe better. But, don’t worry, asthma sufferers, Obama cares about you, and just wants to save you from Globull Warming. Also, says The Weekly Standards Greg Hemingway
Well, tough cookies asthma sufferers! You should have written bigger checks to the Democratic party while you had the chance.
The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, an asthma sufferer, points out that these kinds of regulations almost always lead to worse products.
Anthony Watts says “let the inhaler hoarding begin!” and wonders if the American Lung Association will come out with a new ad campaign against this regulation. I wonder about that two, considering they are freaking out over not enacting globull warming legislation which makes infants in red carriages cough. How about those with asthma, ALA?
Can we really blame this on Bush Obama though? The original backstop to this was the Montreal Protocol in 1989, as Allahpundit points out, and that the FDA was considering this change in 2008. Yup, Bush was president then. Of course, as the liberal talking point went after 9/11 “who’s President now?!” The actual regulation will go into affect while Obama is president, and he could, as Chief Incompetent Executive, stop this now. I suggest that Congress pass a law that requires all Executive office buildings thermostats to be locked down, hooked to a central control system, and kept at 80 in the summer, and 60 in the winter. Let Obama put his money where his climate change hoax mouth is.
HEH…. This one got your goat, didn’t it Teach.
And, a most very excellent idea on the primary thermal Master Control on all federal office buildings. Starting with WhiteHouse and the EPA, then Congress and Congressional offices.
The federal and DC city public buildings still uses central scream plants for heat, I don’t think turning down thermostats individual buildings would actually save any energy. The two plants date from the 1930s and 40s. They rely on steam turbines to “push” the steam through the systems piping.
I wonder how many other signatories are still tracking down and slaughtering products twenty years after the treaty took effect.
Hey Adobe, how do they cool those buildings?
It takes energy to convert water to steam, right? There are thermostats on those steam radiators in each office. The more heat is allowed in to the radiators, the cooler the water that is returned to the “scream” plants. And thus, more energy is needed to return the cooled water back to steam. If no one uses the steam.. then there is less energy used to maintain steam levels. In fact, if no one uses heat, since the globe is warming and there will be no more snows in winter, then there is no reason to maintain the steam plants at all!!!!!
And, don’t these buildings have windows? Open them up and turn off the non-green air conditioners in the summer.
The same plants are used to cool as well. While there might be some effect of returning slightly hotter steam/water to the plants I doubt its that much. A significant amount of energy is used just pushing the steam around and much heat is lost (think homeless on steam grates)in the thousands of miles of piping.
I’ve never been able leave a link here but the plants are run by GSA. As for windows at one time these buildings had single air conditioners in many of them. Don’t remember when that became uncommon.
Wait… steam plants that produce steaming hot steam, pushed to radiators, COOL as well?
The heat and refrigeration equipment are at the same two locations. So in the summer I imagine that the steam equipment only supplies hot water. It’s possible that the steam energy is used to push cold water as well via the turbines, I don’t have a background in HVAC particularly 19Th century technology which is when they started to use central steam plants.
Ok. Just doesn’t make sense to me. And I don’t have a background in HVAC either or thermodynamics, but to me, you need a unit to produce cold air, and a unit to produce hot air. A hot air unit is not meant to produce cold air unless something is broken and it is producing cold air when its supposed to be producing hot air. (i’ve had that happen).
And, yes I know there are heat pumps.. and can we all agree as I’ve heard there is a consensus that they really SUCK!!! I’ve had one. SUCKAGE. and, by suckage I mean by the wallet.
My almer-mater had steam heating for a while. Best thing we could count on… was snow and ice free sidewalks as the steam tunnels were under the sidewalks. Can’t believe these are still in use as they have to be extremely expensive due to energy loss.
Thanks for your insights Adobe.
The same equipment doesn’t make hot and cold they are both done at the same plants simplifies the pipe runs if nothing else.
Duke over in Durham still uses steam, pain in the ass to deal with because every time they want to build a new building they have to relocate the lines. This is never done on time causing delays in starting construction but not in finish dates. Then they never move them far enough away from the building footprint so one ends up having to shore them to keep them out of the excavation.
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