we there are so many alternativ but in the end we shake hands and honor results. so whatever happens this year y, making of american presidents is a pretty wonderful thing. >> they want jobs. america is under attack. >> never tolerate efforts to harm our efforts. >> what to do about energy and the environment. >> you put $90 billion into green jobs. >> who has the solution? voters must decide is the president on the right track. fox news reporting breaks it down behind the green agenda. denver colorado here is bret baier. >> colorado epitomizing american mountains a state blessed with magnificent beauty, rich natural resources and enterprising people. few places straddle the great

divide over environment protection the way docolorado does. like america as a whole folks here don't always agree on how to balance our duty on the one hand to be good stewards of the earth and on the other to ensure this generation can enjoy all of the benefits progress can offer. fox news has been crisscrossing the country to bring you a better understanding of what is really driving the green debate. first up gregg jarrett investigates the rise and fall of a high ranking obama employeemployee in the environmental protection agency and whether the radical views are all too common in the increasing powerful agent. >> we have conquered visibility. >> al was one of the environmental protection agencies stop officials until this tape went viral in april of 2012. >> got a little turkish house

somewhere. crucify them. he was talking about how he deals with the oil and gas producers he regulated in arkansas, louisiana, new mexico, oklahoma and texas which comprised of the epa region 6. it sparked a political firestorm. >> his comments were wrong. frankly they were inflammatory. >> his boss epa administrator lisa jackson accepted his resignation saying his views were not shared by the president who p had appointed him. >> they don't come port with the administration's policy on energy. >> but fox news has been told this was not the only time he openly threatened companies he regulated. >> he appeared before the oklahoma independent petroleum association. what happened? >> they told the group straight

on. >> boiling gas exploration company. he reported chairman of the romney campaign's advisory group. >> they got it quick that they ought to shut us down. >> he made it clear oil and gas industry was the enemy. >> we saw it that way. >> before joining he taught engineering at southern methodist university in dallas. he also advised environmental groups in their battle against something called fractioning or fracking enjiinjecting chemicalr below ground to uncover oil and gas. it's created a bonanza. many say it pollutes air land and water a claim most famously advanced in the oscar nominated

documentary gas land? it made a point it was peepibee out of a kitchen sink in colorado. a cameo that would later spark a different kind of expo say all together. that story begins in 2010 when a texan named steven lipski attended a screening of gas land in texas after he suspected his well had been fouled by fracking he was put in contact with a local anti fracking activist named alyssa rich. she went to his home with a camera connect add garden hose to a spigot and put a match to the end. like the signature scene it ignited. he e-mailed a copy to armaderas now with the epa as proof fracking by a company had fouled his well.

according to epa records, agency scientists had serious misgivings about the video and other evidence that had been gathered. but he brushed them aside and push throughed an emergency order against range resources. he even went on local tv to declare that quote not only is there natural gas in the water well. mike williams and the top oil and gas regulators for the state of texas decided to review the matter himself. >> there was no way in the world that raping production activities had anything to do with the natural gas that might have been. >> when he took his claim to state worcourt the judge found t ridge didn't screw that garden hose on to a water spigot but instead intentionally attach it had to a methane gas vent a common feature on water wells because methane gas is often

found there. then they hit the word button and lit the escaping gas. >> oh my god. look at that. >> district court judge found that alyssa ridge produced a deceptive video calculate to do alarm the public to believe the fracking operations of a company called range resources were engangering human lives. >> not only did she do that, she then passed that information on to region 6 epa and they took it and ran with it as well. >> range resources falsely accused. >> they were falsely accused. this is an outlandish lie. it is unfortunate that the federal official you can get the trust would falsify activity and go after a texas business. >> is it possible he didn't actually know that the tests had been deceptive or falsified?

>> he was a willing participant in the illusion. it wasn't as if somebody pooled the wool over his eyes. he had his own agenda adverse to natural gas. >> lass spring the epa quietly rescinded the order on range resources. a wyoming republican insists this goes beyond one regulator's agenda. >> that's the way the epa has been behaving over the last two years that's why they gained the reputation for being abusive. he says in his state another epa administrator has twice tried to unfairly shut down a natural gas franking operation. sthaer their science has been called out as being faulty a vendetta against red white and blue

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>> america is a lot cleaner than it used to be. many give the epa the credit. that isn't all the agency is doing or hopes to do in the future. should americans worry about epa increase? >> want to talk about environmental problems in america? loosh back a few decades. la smog was so bad in the 1940s one day panicked californians thought the japanese had launched a chemical weapons attack. in the 1950s you could barely see across pittsburgh. they announced lake erie a dead sea killed by industrial pollution and president johnson declared the raw sewage flowing down the potomac a national disgrace. for the first time polls showed the environment was one of

america's greatest worries. that presented an opportunity for lbj's success. >> president nixon in 1958 he was moved that get out front in the environment. >> just days after nixon took office a huge oil spill in santa barbara california and ohio's river caught fire. nixon's senior environmental advisors. >> you have rivers catching fire you better be aggressive. >> weeks after earth day in 1970 nixon established the grand new environment tal protection agency. >> it is fair to say the government does a good job at cleaning things up. >> absolutely. >> he writes extensively on green regulators. >> rivers are not catching fire any more.

that's a great thing. dug through public opinion in those years. even as the nation's air and water were getting cleaner and toxic waste dumps were getting cleaned up american people were increasingly worried about the convenie environment. why is that do you think? >> we went from not worrying at all in the 40z and 50s to possibly worrying too much or worrying about the wrong things. >> blame that on environmental doomsday book beginning with silent strepring by marine biologist carson. a run away seller in 1962 it envisions humans gradually destroying the world by among other things the indiscriminate use of chemicals. >> spraying pesticides should be brought under strict disclose. >> he credits silent spraying with launching the modern

environmental movement. the movement gave us the first epa chief to ban the insecticide det in 1972. the lead was followed by increasing restrictions worldwide of the pesticide over the next 30 years. and that was incredibly wrong headed. >> wrong headed because they likely contributed to several million unnecessary deaths from moscow porn malaria worldwide. it was followed by a spring of best sellers. economic implosion even a glass of civilization itself all within decades. >> do people believe this stuff? >> very clearly most people believe that back in the 70s. the age was scared witless. >> the environmental movement began to more of in-- morph int something new. >> so did the epa.

anthropologist peter wood has written extensively on the movement. >> it began to look at a more elusive threat of chemicals that might or might not be carcinogenic. >> americans want protection from threats of all sorts. >> by the 1970s increasingly intrusive epa regulations led to a backlash. >> we will not permit the safety of our people or our environmental heritage to be jep arred died. but we are going to reaffirm the economic prosperity of our people is a fundamental part of our environment. >> the epa managed to turn a community into a ghost town. times beach missouri scientists found signy traces of dioxins at the time thought to be the most toxic chemicals by man. the government permanently

evacuated it up rooting thousands. today that toxic town is a popular state park. that is right the federal health official who ordered the evacuation admitted he over reacted. ryan would become the administrator two years later. he pushed to expand the agency's regulatory reach. >> what was your crowning achievement at epa? >> the crowning achievement was the use of incentives at the time. >> he is talking about what is known as cap and trade a system that makes companies pay as they pollute. it was used to combat agos sid rain sulfur dioxide said to be killing treeings in the northeast. >> hugely effective largely now accepted and supported approach to pollution control. >> the epa got vast additional

authority in 2007 when the supreme court ruled 5-4 the clean air act authorized the agency to regulate greenhouse gases. including carbon dioxide. >> carbon dioxide is necessary for plants. >> long before he was a radio talk show host he started the landmark legal foundation. in that capacity he is regularly tangled with the epa. >> government giving another branch of government enormous poers. >> what do you say to people who say mark it's not that bad. >> environmental protection agency many of the attributes of the old soviet system. faceless bureaucrats setting industrial policy. this is something we should be very, very concerned about as a people. >> the obama administration suggested the epa will use its new power to um pose a cap and

trade system if congress doesn't act. it could cost the american economy more than half a trillion dollars a year. trillion with a t. according to the national association of manufacturers. the former republican epa chief says something like that needs to be done. >> i think the epa has been led to a position where it has got to act>> many disagree. among other things the epa cleanup operations of 40 years ago costs relatively little and most everyone benefits. in koven tras all out effort to lower the temperature of the planet assuming global warming is a problem humans can reverse would be the most complicated and expensive under taking in human history. >> pollution in pittsburgh when

i was growing up took on. i am grateful for that generation of epa to make it happen. >> the epa's latest mission reveals not a concern for the environment but a radical agenda that is less about the environment than most americans might image. >> when we return sweetheart why

>> citizens elect representatives to pass law. that's how democracy is supposed to work.

now questions about weather around the epa with the help of core and environment tal groups has ceased power that voters can no longer troll control. 2010 the northwest environmental defense center con viss a court that water off logging roads is industrial pollution requiring an epa clean boughter permit. the timber industry says that will cost hundreds of billions millions of dollars kill thousands of jobs and attract litigation without any environmental benefit. 2009 another environmental group sues to force the epa to crack down on water runoff from farms along the bay. the epa settled and i am posed strict new rules that american farm bureau says will cost billions of dollars. 2011 the epa imposes stricter limits on pesticide use than congress required.

after a con soerpgs of environmental groups sued saying environmentalists were being too lenient. it shows how environmental groups ex tort influence over the epa. >> they have used a lot of litigation to get federal gujuds to order the epa to do what it wanted to do. >> he is a professor at pepper dime university. >> it is poorly understood by the public and members of congress. >> my understanding is there are situations where groups file suit against your agency. literally on the same day there are settlements entered into by the agency with those groups. >> one congressman asks epa administrator lisa jackson about it in 2012. >> i am not aware of any settling the same day. >> there is a lot of history under our administration of

ep,work at the groups. what i would call a sweetheart deal. >> jeff homestead is a former assistant epa administrator. >> if someone brings one of these cases they get to recover any fees you have to pay for their costs of bringing the suit. it is a pretty good muffin maker. >> it gets even worse. >> many of the same groups get grants from the epa. >> i said for years it's a bad system but that's the system we have. >> when you are subsidizing these groups to bring lawsuits to attack private property rights to attack the capitalist system, to attack various industries. >> mark levin says in many cases the law gives environmental groups special standing to sue. >> it is a horrendous circle. >> i can assure you it doesn't enter into sweetheart settlements. >> louisiana senator david vitter republican on environmental public works says

environmental groups don't even have to sue to stop, delay or threaten some projects. case in point alaska 2010. they proep potion a mining operation that could generate comblls of dolla -- billions of dollars of economic activity and jobs in the briss tal bay region. enter a local environmental group which complained to the epa. despite the fact that no plan or permit had been submitted for review the epa announced test opposition to the project concluding it might interfere with a sock isal monday habitat. whether or not the project ultimately happens, vitter says the epa abused its power. >> they are jumping the gun and looking to pre-empt. >> even worse some groups are using the system to advance agendas that have nothing to do with the environment. in 2010 a collision --

collection of groups petitioned the epa to regulate the led in pull lets as a toxic substance saying they contaminate groundwater and wildlife. they shut it down when a political firefight broke out. >> the era accused the epa of back door attempt to limit hunting. >> you buy that? >> i think it was clearly a clever leftist approach to try to cut down on gun rights and make life tougher for folks to own guns. >> hayward thinks we haven't seen the last of it. >> environmental groups think of the epa as their agency. they are making a mess of things it is just going to get worse. >> environmental racism and the keystone pipeline. is obama's green agenda killing jobs?

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live from america's news headquarters the number of people sickened in the deadly meningitis outbreak is now over 300 akerding to the cdc. 14 states have reported the meningitis and health officials say 15 people have died after receiving tainted steroid injempxs for back pain. the company recalled all products and the space suretiel endeavor is reaching its new home on sunday. it is now parked at the california science center, it was supposed to arrive earlier but the inch by inch delay was delayed including by trees and light posts. now back to fox news reports for your latest headlines log on to fox news.com. een agenda.

>> since before he took office he promised to boost the econ mae by creating millions of green jobs. taxpayers create billions but the green economy has yet to rule. what about the real existing economy the one that overwhelmingly still depends on fossil fuels. >> it's one decision captures obama's critics the radical nature of his green agenda is his refusal to go full bore on the pipeline. >> we needed a certain amount of time to review the project. >> the $7 billion project would transfer oil from oil stands of western canada to refineries in texas. >> the environmentalists were saying we have to stop if awing ev -- using every excuse they could. >> he is a republican from oklahoma he says building the pipeline is a no brainer for many reasons starting with the thousands of private sector jobs the economists predict it would

create. >> you have all of this capability not just in producing and exploring but also pipelines going through. we have to keep the production in america. >> the obama administration says its concerned the pipeline would make aquifers getting over. tar sand oils the market could only accelerate global warming. what really gets him is another argument advanceed by eastboundiepa administrator lisa jackson. environmental justice. >> it's what we see in inner cities where they make workers stay home. open landfills are rampant and drinking water is polluted. >> the environmental justice says the keystone pipeline will end up in port arthur, texas. the refining process will therefore pollute. >> i would say that's one more fabrication used to retard our

production in this country. those people need jobs. >> i have been working with people at port arthur their biggest request is to have more oil jobs. that's what the pipeline would bring. >> harry olson national black chamber of commerce doubts concerns about environmental justice are sincere. >> i don't think our epa merchandi administrator jackson is rolling over at night thinking about the poor blacks in port arthur texas. >> they think the obama administration employs many bogus arguments against fossil fuels. >> several years ago they had the billings to get offshore alaska. obama epa held that up with various image tive reasons for a total of 3 years. >> the most imaginative delay tactic he says the vessels they

would approach air permissible levels. >> action by the congress took the entire jurisdiction of that particular matter out of the epa's hands so this vital project could move on. >> the epa wouldn't talk to us they only sent a statement which inserted the protections on the environment and that quote for over 40 years the epa has taken sensible step that is protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. this there is a moratorium after the bp oil spill. carol browner imposed it over an objection that would kill more jobs in the region already devastated by the spill. browner sited a panel of experts that she said recommended stopping all exploration and drilling in the gulf. that wasn't true.

an interior department concluded he implied they had the moratorium. in fact they had neither reviewed nor supported such a policy decision. >> our investigation confirmed they doctored that report to lead to the moratorium. browner wouldn't talk to us. senator vitter thinks it was a case of never letting a crisis go to waist. >> what kind of economic impact did that have on your region? >> tens of thousands of jobs that moratorium was far bigger than the hit from the bill itself and it was the biggest negative thing we have dealt with in five plus years. >> you have heard people talk about staefustain ability. what does that mean? it may be the key to understanding what is behind the obama green agenda after the break. ♪

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>> this is sustain ability park in downtown denver celebrates the idea of sustainable development. you hear that term a lot these days. but do you really know what it means? wh what gregg jarrett discovered may worry you. >> sustainable campuses. >> sustainable energy. >> if you are like former boston university anthropology

professor, former team college provost current president of the national association of scholars you may have assumed that all of this sustain ability talk was fancy way of speaking green. >> i thought it was supposed to be an up-to-date word for environmentalism. >> wood kwhos organization was founded to canvas political correctness discovered a sustain ability initiative at the university of delaware. it seemeded to have precious little to do with clean air or clean water. >> the 7,000 dormitory students were expected to participate. >> in this video produced by another foj watch d-- watch dog students wrote the program. >> you are important because you are from this race or you identify with this sexual orientation. >> i support gay marriage but that doesn't mean everyone at the school should have to. >> white students were told they had to confess they were racist.

students were told if they weren't for gay marriage they have to stand in the corner. >> sounds like what you are describing is students being brain washed. >> it was an attempt to get inside student's heads alienate them from american culture. they feel guilty about the social attitudes they brought from their homes and replaced them with a qusai markist kind of world. >> center for energy and environmental policy sustain ability guru. he says he had nothing to do with the program he confirmed it was part of the university's sustain ability push. >> the aim at that point was a proposal that students would engage the some what controversial argument and some students felt it was inappropriate. >> so the school canceled the program. wood wanted to twhoe what it had

to do with sustain ability in the first place. he got his answer in a university of delaware computer presentation he found during his investigation. it illustrated the concept of sustain ability with three overlapping circles. healthy environments plus strong economies and social justice. where they overlap that's the sustain ability sweet spot. in other words, sustain ability is about a lot more than the environment. discovered notions like anti colonialism echo feminism and echo socialism can be part of sustain ability, too. >> also taking free enterprise getting you tell set with the social justice agenda. >> the term sustain ability was coined in the 87 united nations report says burn who should know he was part of the panel on climate change would share the 2007 noble peace prize awith al

gore. >> we need to figure out on the one hand how to make a world that would be economically improved. on the other hand make sure we bee keith a functioning environment for future generations. >> green is part of the equat n equation. >> much of the credit for turning the u.n.'s idea of sustainable development into a true movement in the u.s. goes to anthony corteze former commissioner of the massachusetts department of environmental protection. he got a big assist from one of america's top democratic power couples. >> rio summit in 92 terry and teresa i'aims got together. they contacted you. >> yes. >> john kerry called me up and said i think we need to promote sustainable development. >> they created a nonprofit called second nature.

he believed the best place to start changing the way americans think and live was on college campuses. he pushed the university presidents nationwide to make advancing the sustain ability agenda their school's number one priority. >> how successful were you in getting your support? >> we started in early 20007 with colleges and universities that stepped up and made this commitment. we have 677 in all 50 states. >> the sustain ability movement is the biggest thing on the american college campus. >> wood said it shouldn't surprise any one that it led to outrage over things like that sustain ability program at the university of delaware. >> sustained view is our civilization founded on a rotten base. >> this is not over intending to do this. the there is no liberal con sefb

ti -- conservative. >> you are not driven by political agenda. >> the publication suggests otherwise. >> sustainable development and environmental addresses past present and future mal distribution of resources rights of endangered communities poor people and of communities of color. it sounds like liberal social theory. is that what you want all college students to add here to? >> no. what we want them to do is understand what happened in the past and what the consequences were. >> it says we are going to address the inequalities of the past. that's what it says. >> can i see what it says? >> sure. >> circled. >> well -- >> it was your report. >> yes, it was our report.

>> we to make up for past inequality. >> the question is how the obama administration interprets the word sustain ability evidence suggestions a lot like corteze. that's epa administrator lisa jackson. >> we just build and rebuild the nation and the economy to everyone who gets a fair shot. it was commissioned after the president signed an executive order calling for an integrated strategy toward sustain ability in the federal government. the report recommends the agency incorporate into the daily affairs the three sustainable development pillars social environmental and economic. >> the epa is on board with your sustain ability? >> yes. >> while it tells fox it has not yet made any decisions on

implementation of the report, other administration sustain ability initiatives have moved forward. >> president obama, is he on board with sustain ability? >> to me that's a question although i receive disturbing signs. they are translated into public. >> the choice for november election may come down to

>> americans face a stark choice not only policy proposals but two separate visions of how the world works. in the end it may come down to your idea of progress and your

faith in mankind to over come the toughest problems. under construction in the desert in eastern california a massive solar energy installation designed to help that state meet a mandate to generate a third of its electricity from green sources by 2020. it's one of at least 17 solar and wind projects covering hundreds of thousands of acres green lighted with loan guarantees by the obama energy and interior departments in the southwest. to president obama the mass i have installations together with billions of dollars more to promote all sorts of green technologies represent progress. and a big down payment on the most soaring promise of the 2008 campaign. >> this was a moment when the rise of the ocean began to flow

and planet began to heel. >> you put $90 billion into green jobs. these businesses may have gone out of business. >> in the first debate mitt romney attacked the green agenda more than once. >> you not only pick the winners and losers you pick the losers. >> a lot of it is over how much we know how much we can know and what we should do about it if we do know. >> he is senior fellow at the institute and author of "examining obama's place" in the movement>> you have progressionives who think we are in a place to learn much more about the future of the nation the future of the planet than ordinary people think we can know. >> people like buzz hilbery. >> i am no scientist but it makes plants grow and what we breathe. they are trying to choke us all

out burning coal. >> welcome to west virginia coal company. >> saw people selling their homes moving away from west virginia and my county. >> folks here say obama's green agenda threatens their way of life. >> do you feel that the industry is under attack? >> definitely. absolutely. >> 100 percent. >> the obama administration sees a much bigger problem that needs solving right now. >> does it make any sense to pretend climate change isn't happening and hope we can deal with it later? >> no, sir, it doesn't. >> such servitude about global warming explains why epa administrator lisa jackson restricted gas emissions through regulation held up for reverse permits and proposed new more stringent rules on coal firepower plants even in the middle of the great recession. >> is there any evidence they are harming the economy? >> none. none that i am aware of.

>> it's just not right. >> west virginia state senator insists she is flat out wrong. >> you are a west virginia democrat. do you feel abandoned by this white house? >> yeah, i do. >> when we spoke in the summer he wasn't so sure about mitt romney either. >> he has a history of speaking out about global warming. he was the first governor to sign cap and trade. do you think his support for coal is sincere? >> that's a tough question. >> i talk to a lot of coal miners. all of them hate president obama's policies but they are weary of governor romney. >> i don't think they have a lot of reason to be worried about governor romney. i tell you this those of us who are going to vote for governor romney are going to do everything we can to hold his feet to the fire to make sure our economy is unleashed.

in other words he suggests it is economic growth that will generate environmental solutions than the other way around. he agrees that's how real progress happens. >> the trick is not to believe this is about having government mandates specific progression saying this is how we should do it this is what we want out of it. focus on broad based innovation not on specific mandates. >> now you have a choice between a strategy that revertss progress or one that builds on it. >> voters will decide which sfrat gee is which. >> this debate is far from over. while the results of november's election won't end it they will none the less set america on a four-year course that could profoundly affect people in this country and around the world. only distant generations may know if and how the chosen

course protected the planet. but we and our children will know soon if they helped or hurt our way of life. that's our program. i am bret baier. thanks for watching. [ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

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