Choking on Clean Air Regulations

When asked about the economic impact of the proposed tightening of Clean Air Act mandates, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner told USA Today, "I think industry, frankly, is engaging in scare tactics."

Few are more familiar with scare tactics than Ms. Browner. The EPA and the environmental movement have used such tactics for decades to achieve their ultimate goal, a chokehold on the nation's economy. To understand this deliberately complex acquisition of power, one must understand that it's not just about clean air standards. It's about giving the EPA the right to define what clean air is, and the power to enforce an extensive matrix of laws concerning not just the air, but water, wetlands, endangered species, pesticides, etc.

Increasingly, thoughtful Americans are having second thoughts about the real motivations of those who claim to desire only to "save the Earth." Observers of the environmental movement have grown increasingly concerned that actions taken by the EPA and the Clinton Administration reflect the international agenda of the Green political movement. Through existing and proposed United Nation's environmental treaties, key Clinton appointees are engaged in a breathtaking attack on both U.S. national sovereignty and the keystone of our Constitution, private property.

Few Americans are aware of the extraordinary infiltration of both the current Administration and the United Nations by advocates and agents of the worldwide Green movement. Fewer still recognize the movement's plans not just to "save the Earth," but to achieve "global governance."

Unelected, Unappointed, Un-American

By creating an endless tangle of U.N.-designated "World Heritage Sites" and "Ecoregions," nongovernmental groups (NGOs) and the United Nations Environmen-tal Program are establishing their "rights" to make and influence decisions about the entire U.S. land mass. These people are not elected, nor are they appointed by any U.S. government agency.

The U.N. "Heritage" sites include Yellowstone, the Everglades, the Grand Canyon, and even the Statue of Liberty, to name just a few. Ecoregions, if given legal status under the proposed U.N. Biodiversity Treaty, would carve the U.S. and Canada into 21 areas in which all development would be restricted.

The Growing EPA Plague

Since its founding in 1970, the EPA has been responsible for what now represents one-third of all federal laws and regulations. By its own estimates, EPA regulations have cost U.S. taxpayers and businesses $1.4 trillion in the agency's first two decades; they will cost an estimated $1.6 trillion in the 1990s alone. Moreover, the hidden costs of environmental rules and regulations, passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices, fewer choices, and less freedom, easily double and triple the EPA figure.

Who's Scaring Whom?

Defending the new Clean Air Act mandates, estimated to cost between $6.6 and $8.5 billion, Browner said, "The question is not one of science. The question is one of judgment: Whom do we protect?" Not science? And whose judgment? Browner's use of a classic scare campaign tactic--a dire health threat--signaled the specious nature of EPA's new grab for power.

The EPA has lied to Americans for years. In late 1996 and continuing into 1997, it has barraged the media with claims about growing "pollution" problems. One need only recall, however, the false assertion that Times Beach, Missouri, was threatened by dioxin, when in fact it was not. Or the clamor over "acid rain," found in a government study to be innocent of the claim that it leads to deforestation.

Or consider the claim of "global warming," which is devoid of scientific proof--and which has been re-named "global climate change" as a way to smooth over the embarrassing lack of evidence. That scare has resulted in a senseless ban on freon, the essential chemical ingredient in all refrigeration and air conditioning, and one of the most effective chemicals with which to extinguish fires.

Subjected to decades of environmental doomsday scenarios, Americans are only now awakening to the Green movement's hidden, but true, agenda: enough is never enough. The proposed expansion of the Clean Air Act to include irrationally smaller emissions of particulates is a perfect example. Keep in mind, the power to regulate is the power to destroy.

Regulation: Silly, but No Laughing Matter

The EPA proposal would reduce acceptable ozone levels from 120 parts per billion measured over a one-hour period, to 80 parts per billion over an eight-hour period. Current particulate matter standards--which allow concentrations of no more than 150 micrograms of particulates no larger than 10 microns in diameter, per cubic meter of air--would be reduced. The new standards would permit concentrations of no more than 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air daily (15 micrograms per cubic meter annually) of particulates no larger than 2.5 microns. (By way of comparison, a human hair is about 70 microns.)

It's a totally irrational standard based on specious claims of purported health benefits. The new EPA proposal comes at a time when life expectancy in America is the highest it has ever been. Yes, some Americans suffer from respiratory diseases, but how much of that can honestly be attributed to dust?

A colleague of mine, an environmental and regulatory affairs specialist, has studied the new EPA proposals. He points out that "many parts of the country will automatically wind up in violation of the proposed levels due to naturally occurring and highly reactive VOCs (volatile organic compounds) given off by a number of biogenic sources such as shrubs and trees." The EPA and the Clinton Administration are well aware of this problem, but seem little concerned. Others are far more concerned. Jerry J. Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, noted that "Being in non-attainment is much more than just a classification on a piece of paper. It can mean the loss of federal highway funds, mandatory car pooling, and restrictions on household items such as lawn mowers, paint, fireplaces, and hair spray."

Even Mother Nature Violates the Standards

If the Earth produces gases and particulates, why are new, harsher regulations called for? Americans live on about 3 percent of the entire land mass of the U.S. The rest is deserts, grazing and farm lands, mountain ranges, and two-thirds of all the forests that existed when the Pilgrims arrived. Forests, and even deserts, produce VOCs! In his book, A Moment on the Earth, Gregg Easterbrook noted that "Nature emits an estimated 200 billion tons of [carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas] annually, versus a human-caused emission total of about seven billion tons per year." And carbon dioxide is just one gas that the Earth produces all the time.

You want dust? Particulates? There are more than 500 volcanoes on Earth, many of which are active to the point of producing more "particulates" in a single eruption, on a single day, than a year's worth of any "dust" resulting from any human activity.

More Dangerous than Dust

Having devoted the last fifty years to the defeat of Soviet-style Communism, the nation must now turn its attention to the Green variant that presently threatens U.S. sovereignty and its economic system. The issue is not dust. It is not greenhouse gases. It is not endangered species, wetlands, ozone, pesticides, or landfills.

At stake is nothing less than your children's and grandchildren's futures. Those futures will be ensured only by the democratic and capitalist values that founded and grew this country. The enemy of those values lies within, as well as beyond, our borders.

Alan Caruba, a business and science writer, founded the National Anxiety Center in 1990. Headquartered in Maplewood, New Jersey, the center serves as a clearinghouse for information and commentary on "scare campaigns." Contact the National Anxiety Center at 201/763-6392.