The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has officially declared that carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases are dangerous to public health and welfare, paving the way for much stricter emissions standards.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the “endangerment finding” on December 7. This ruling was needed to allow new emissions regulations for automobiles to move forward, and it sets the stage for large-scale emitters of these gases such as factories, power plants, and refineries to be hit with limitations on their output.

"These long overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the U.S. government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform," Jackson declared in a statement. The Obama administration had indicated earlier in the year that it would make this controversial decision, but the timing of the announcement is meant to coincide with the opening of the global climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The EPA decision gives President Barack Obama a way to show the leaders of the Copenhagen conference that the United States is committed to dealing with climate change. President Obama is scheduled to attend on December 18, and he can be expected to point to the EPA ruling as evidence of U.S. determination to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions.

This is also meant to put roundabout pressure on developing countries such as Communist China and India, where the greatest increase in emissions is expected in the future. But these countries have shown an unwillingness to impede their own rate of development unless more advanced nations lead the way by first cutting their own emissions. The EPA decision is meant to put the pressure back on the developing nations to comply.

Opponents of the EPA ruling, such as U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, stated that it "could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project. The devil will be in the details, and we look forward to working with the government to ensure we don't stifle our economic recovery."

The National Association of Manufacturers, a U.S. industry trade group, said the EPA action wouldn’t significantly combat climate change, and "is certain to come at a huge cost to the economy."

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a self-described “public interest group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government,” has even announced that it will file suit in federal court to overturn the EPA endangerment finding. CEI pointed to major scientific issues being ignored by the EPA, including the recent Climategate fraud scandal.

“EPA is clinging for dear life to the notion that the global climate models are holding up,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman.  “In reality, those models are about to sink under the growing weight of evidence that they are fabrications.”

“Today’s decision by EPA will trigger costly and time-consuming permitting requirements for tens of thousands of previously unregulated small businesses under the Clean Air Act,” said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis.  “A more potent Anti-Stimulus Package would be hard to imagine.”

“The sensible solution,” Lewis pointed out, “would be for Congress to pass legislation, such as that proposed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee that would pre-empt the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.”

One can only hope that the arguments of the cooler heads in U.S. business and manufacturing and the Competitive Enterprise Institute will prevail over the global-warming hysteria that has taken hold of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: AP Images

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (6)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Flu-Bird said:

Abolish the EPA If there was one goverment agency that needed to be totaly elminated its the ENVIROMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY its become just another out of control bunch of buricrats

December 07, 2009

jallen said:

... Very interesting take from across the pond: Barack Obama’s use of the EPA to pressurise the Senate to pass his climate change ... shows his dictatorial mentality. He wants to override Congress, which is hostile to his climate gobbledegook because it is representative of the American electorate, and sideline the nation’s elected Senators by ruling by decree, courtesy of the EPA. This is a coup d’état. Fortunately, the world’s leading democracy, which he is trying to subvert, has guarantees of liberty so deeply embedded in its Constitution that US citizens are well placed to fight back. In the first place, regulation can be challenged in a way that laws cannot. So the EPA’s proposed ruling on so-called “Greenhouse Gases” can be opposed extensively with litigation, to the point that the ruling might not yet be in force when Obama demits office. In the second place, the EPA is funded by Congress. So, if the Agency is being used to bypass or neuter Congress, why should legislators not play hardball and retaliate by cutting off its funding? http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100019206/climategate-barack-obamas-rule-by-epa-decree-is-a-coup-detat-against-congress-made-in-britain/

December 08, 2009

mickey white said:

Marsha Blackburn is not well liked here in the 7th district by Constittutionalists Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR: Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening. Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST: Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations. Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman. See her unconstitutional votes at : http://tinyurl.com/qhayna Mickey

December 08, 2009 | url

Spurwing Plover said:

EPA IS A HAZARD The real public health hazard is the EPA itself and the banning of DDT was based wholy on lies and junk science and the lies of RACEAL CARSON

December 10, 2009

Betty Merry said:

... Any intelligence at the EPA????? Or just more paid off hacks....give people a break, If you can breathe, so can we! Political manipulation attempts are beyond belief....The LIES are outrageous.

December 10, 2009

running shoes said:

running shoes Any intelligence at the EPA????? Or just more paid off hacks....give people a break, If you can breathe, so can we! Political manipulation attempts are beyond belief....The LIES are outrageous.

January 05, 2010 | url