Brown and Obama know how to kill jobs.  Just claim any activity is harming the environment–no facts, use junk science, scare the pants off of people and throw them on unemployment.

"Under new rules proposed by the Obama administration, plants will be banned from emitting more than 55 pounds of mercury per million tons of cement produced.  The cement industry says it will cost $3.4 billion and force the closure of some cement plants to comply with the new rules.  The Lehigh cement plant employs about 100 people."

Instead we can make cement in Mexico–help their economy at the expense of ours.  One good thing–the illegal aliens could stay in Mexico!

By WAYNE LUSVARDI, Cal Watchdog,  2/14/12

William Shakespeare wrote a farcical play, "Much Ado About Nothing." California is apparently acting out Shakespeare's play in Tehachapi where the Lehigh Cement Company plant produced nearly nothing of mercury to the alarm of environmentalists, regulators, and the mainstream media.

The 872 pounds  – or about one third of a ton — of mercury emitted at the Lehigh cement plant in 2010 is:

* 0.005 percent of the world's total per year;

* 0.001 percent of the total emitted in the world by man;

* 0.25 percent of the total emitted in North America by man;

* 0.17 percent of all the mercury emitted by cement plants in the world.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one third of all mercury emissions generated within the United States are deposited within the country.  So take the 0.005 percent of mercury emissions emitted at the Lehigh cement plant and reduce it by two thirds to an even more minuscule number.   Forget the numbers for a moment:  the Lehigh cement plant emits an incredibly tiny amount of mercury into the air compared to global or national emissions.  It is much to do about almost nothing.

Regulators Gone Wild

Trzupek writes there is no such thing as man-made mercury.  "Man does not produce mercury, we relocate it," he said.   The concern is that the Lehigh Cement Plant is relocating too much mercury to waterways, where fish and other wildlife can retain it.  One of the largest sources of mercury exposure by man is from eating fish.

The concern of the U.S. EPA is that the Lehigh Cement Plant "produced" the most mercury of any cement plant in California and the second highest of all cement plants in the United States.

New Obama 'Near Zero Emissions' Mercury Standard

At Lehigh, a coal-fired power plant is used to cook limestone mined from nearby to produce cement; mercury escapes into the air.  In 2010, 872 pounds of mercury were emitted at Lehigh.  Under new rules proposed by the Obama administration, plants will be banned from emitting more than 55 pounds of mercury per million tons of cement produced.  The cement industry says it will cost $3.4 billion and force the closure of some cement plants to comply with the new rules.  The Lehigh cement plant employs about 100 people.

The Lehigh cement plant was originally constructed to provide cement for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, built by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to provide water to Southern California.

Cement industry spokesperson Andy O'Hare said 18 cement plants could be forced to shut down nationally and 3,000 to 4,000 jobs would be lost because of the Obama administration's new rules.  O'Hare points out that shutting down domestic cement plants will just transfer those jobs to China, where there are no comparable pollution standards.

Mercury has been found to have been deposited in Antarctic ice over the past 650,000 years, or before industrialization.  Mercury is absorbed from the air by water, rocks, soil and trees.  Human bodies evolved with immune systems that include certain proteins and antioxidants to protect from potential contaminants. There is 200 million tons of mercury in the ocean, but it is not dangerous because it has not been converted to a dangerous form, such as methylmercury.

Mercury is Element for Class Warfare

Ever since the New Deal of the 1930s, jobs programs have been created that lacked a demonstrable public purpose other than the jobs created. With the Obama administration's new mercury rules, what is being defended is the public sector at the expense of the private sector.

If the jobs from cement production end up being sent overseas, that's no matter as long as public-sector jobs in America are expanded or preserved.

Another name for this is "class warfare." And that's much ado about something.