Posted on 09/18/2009 7:33:16 PM PDT by markomalley
President Obama doesn’t want to run the auto industry, but he had to, temporarily of course, to save the economy. And Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson doesn’t want to regulate carbon dioxide, but the EPA seems intent on moving forward regardless. Fortunately, Congress could shorten the EPA’s long, regulatory leash by amending the Interior-Environment appropriations spending bill early next week.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed endangerment finding in April, saying that global warming and climate change pose a serious threat to public health and safety and thus almost anything that emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The agency is already targeting the ailing auto industry. New regulations are proposing that the fleet average must reach 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, which will increase the price and decrease the safety of the vehicle.
Earlier in September, Jackson said prefers cap and trade to regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act:
Legislation is so important, because it will combine the most efficient, most economy-wide, least costly (and) least disruptive way to deal with carbon dioxide pollution. We get further faster without top-down regulation.”
The amendment planning to be offered would prevent those top down regulations that could include new standards for hotels, retail stores, apartment complexes, restaurants, airplanes, ocean-going freighters and tankers and even lawnmowers. And the regulations would be costly. Heritage economists modeled the effects of proposed EPA regulations and found:
• Cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses are nearly $7 trillion by 2029 (in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars), according to The Heritage Foundation/Global Insight model (described in Appendix A).
• Single-year GDP losses exceed $600 billion (in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars).
• Annual job losses exceed 800,000 for several years.
• Some industries will see job losses that exceed 50 percent.
The full report is available here. It’s safe to say these cost estimates are low since the model does not consider the substantial administrative costs of complying with the new regulations. And keep in mind, the job losses are after accounting for “green” job creation.
Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN) weighed in, arguing the EPA would gain tremendous power and micromanage the economy:
With or without Congressional action, EPA will be free to regulate greenhouse gases, resulting in one of the largest and most bureaucratic nightmares that the U.S. economy and Americans have ever seen. And, with EPA in the lead, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguably the voice of agriculture and rural America, would be left out of the process. Let me be clear, this is not a responsibility we want to leave in the hands of EPA.”
Whether it’s cap-and-trade legislation or EPA’s proposed regulations, attempting to restrict energy use by cutting carbon dioxide would be toxic to an ill economy. Even in the best of economic times, this policy would likely end them.
Americans have lost control of their government.
Th EPA is unconstitutional and needs to be abolished.
Why doesn’t the EPA just rescind Obama’s orders to bailout the auto industry? That will solve the problem.
bump
Easy solution: Abolish the EPA,and abolish any legislation that is associated with it.
EPA is enforcing the SCOTUS decision.
Don’t we have an environmental Czar? What does he/she have to say about this?
This MUST be the next Tea Party cause. It is BS and even more a personal imposition than “healthcare”. It is totally based on a fabricated “crisis” and will cause us all to go back to whale oil for lighting.
EPA was not directed to do this...they were asked to make a decision as to whether CO2 was dangerous or not...Obama’s EPA used UN pseudo-science to justify their outrageous endangerment finding.
Food comes from energy, lots of energy. EPA must mean “Environmentlally Peopleless Agenda”.
these dillholes wont be satified til we're lightin farts...
All plants om the planet need CO2!
Nixon gave us this nightmare and then took us off the gold standard.It’s long past time for a third party victory!
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