On Nov. 15, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency released a draft document describing how it wants to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases that can be released into the atmosphere under the Clean Air Act. But the law was never intended to regulate greenhouse gases on a planet filled with carbon-based life.
Congress is still debating the merits of climate change legislation. So it is wrong for the EPA to move forward with their proposed standards because the agency does not have the authority to pass laws. The making of laws and the regulation of commerce are constitutionally granted to Congress and the states.
Many feel that the regulations announced by the EPA would be even more devastating than the Waxman/Markey “cap and trade” legislation (H.R. 2454) passed by the House in June – because the regulations would apply to any industrial source, even power plants, that emit at least 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually. Such a law would kill jobs, raise the price of energy and in the process increase the prices of all goods and services.
Under the hallmark of progressivism – which spawns fascism and which assumes that experts know what is better for society than the individuals themselves – Obama has co-opted the Congress and is imposing his agenda through the regulatory back door of the EPA.
The Republican-dominated House, if serious about government profligacy, abuses of power, and reviving the economy through the creation of jobs, must be ready to battle the EPA when the House is called into session on Jan. 2.
The GOP House must throw monkey wrenches into the Obama administration’s attempt to release the EPA’s carbon police on the American people and on this nation’s economic engine.
Nancy J. Thorner
Lake Bluff, IL
Nancy J. Thorner is a writer, cellist, and Tea Party activist based in suburban Chicago.
