December 18, 2009 – The EPA and CO2

By declaring CO2 (which is the ubiquitous byproduct of most life-sustaining activity) a poison – the EPA is instituting a command and control economy by fiat. While the policy itself is bad, the principles are worse. What we are getting is a regulatory apparatus in the form of czars and bureaucrats who have the power to manage the lives of fellow citizens without their consent – breathtakingly undemocratic! Even Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who helped to write the Clean Air Act, as well as its 1990 revision, says that neither was meant to apply to carbon. In the face of a Congress that is hesitant to introduce yet more taxes which would result from the regulation of carbon, the EPA’s action constitutes a seizure of power by the executive branch, and undermines our system of checks and balances. Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, asserts, “If the U.S. Senate fails to pass cap-and-trade legislation, then the EPA will be obliged to regulate.” Hmm . . . when was the last time we heard “taxation without representation?”