Comments (50) | Add a comment
EDITORIAL
In the air
Tools
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:13 a.m.
The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step Monday toward regulating carbon dioxide, officially concluding that CO2 "pollution," by contributing to "climate change," threatens the human environment and thus the public health.
The announcement came as the Obama administration struggles to arm-twist (or bribe) other nations at an international climate conference in Copenhagen to join it in what those officials are claiming to be America's "aggressive actions to combat global warming," even though Congress has yet to act on climate legislation.
Back in the United States, the EPA said Monday that scientific evidence clearly shows greenhouse gases "threaten the public health and welfare of the American people" and that the pollutants -- the EPA mainly singled out carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, though the oceans are a larger source of the gas, and by far the most prevalent and effective "greenhouse gas" is water vapor -- must be regulated under terms of the Clean Air Act.
Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding was needed before the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases released from automobiles, power plants and factories.
The EPA has begun the early stages of developing permit requirements on carbon dioxide "pollution" from large emitters such as power plants. The administration also has said it will set the first-ever greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles and raise fuel economy to 35 mpg by 2016.
"Let's discuss something else that endangers human health," responded U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, "the inability to find a job. The EPA has achieved by fiat what leading Democrats in Congress haven't been able to accomplish via legislation -- establish a National Energy Tax. ...
"By seeking to sharply curtail carbon dioxide (and thus energy usage), the EPA is in effect working to decrease economic activity. Less economic activity equals higher unemployment equals more Americans choosing between paying rent and paying for food or medicine. That's not an equation that leads to better human health."
Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, noted that an "endangerment finding from the EPA 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 "science" that predicts disastrous consequences based on today's temperature trends is highly speculative. If EPA officials truly find that "science" convincing (though they are political appointees, let's recall), it's true that the high court's interpretation of the Clean Air Act leaves the EPA with little choice but to proceed with this economically crippling agenda.
The solution lies with the elected Congress. Reform the Clean Air Act -- now. For if this is what the law says, then the law is a ass.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Whatever you believe...Keep looking behind you for those government agents keeping an eye on you.
Mark, increasing numbers of people know that there is something massively wrong in our government, and that replacing Socialist Party A with Socialist Party B is not helping. The false left/right paradigm as implemented by the fascist/globalist banksters and their klepto-republicrat minions is collapsing, as people wake up and see they emperor without clothes.
Keep trying to convince us all the the government only wants us to be taken care of, like Big Brother promised. Yes, I use 1984 references, because it exposes what is really going on...
WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Post to Miles Monroe continued,
When you wrote "We don't need government to jam it down our throat." I can think of many examples where the government has forced polluters to own up to their actions through the force of law because individuals don't have the resources to do so. Think about the years people can lose off their mortal life span just fighting deep pockets to get justice. This is one reason why laws forcing large entities to either take action or prohibit them from causing harm exist. Until laws exist to hold large, and SOMETIMES smaller, polluters responsible and money is made available to support innovative technology to address the harmful effects of fossil fuel burning those same companies, with rare exceptions, won't offer clean tech for consumers or fix their own problems. Government is the proper avenue to address problems that can't be fixed by individual action or fixed in a timely fashion. Now this is where the conspiracy cranks crawl back out of the woodwork. Winston, take over.
Hello Miles,
Our water bills are right around where yours are although we have been as low $11 or so. My wife has said no to installing a swamp cooler although it does increase water use. No free lunch there when you look at what has been happening to water levels at Lake Mead.
To you other points, no climate researcher has contended we are "ruining" the planet. What the careful research shows is that we are altering the planet in ways that can lead, to a very high probability, to many areas, if not most, becoming hostile to supporting the population those areas currently support, much less any increases.
As to plant life, my biology professor would have you first look at all the limits on plant growth, the kind of photosynthetic processes at work, the effects of altered soil moisture and elevated temperatures on plant respiration, etc. Also, you do know that plants release CO2 at night and that plant biologists are well aware of the possibility for carbon sequestration? The results of careful research are decidedly more mixed than your sanguine statements would suggest. This chapter from IPCC summarizes nicely what is known and the reality is more worrying:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter5.pdf
Finally, where have looked for the credible evidence? Have you gone to a good research library at a university or college? Have you talked with atmospheric scientists, biologists, paleoclimatologists, or other active researchers at public forums? I have.
Concerted government action has been successful in the past at dealing with overriding concerns and our individual actions can only be part of the solution.
Winston, Because you are paranoid of government action and a conspiracy theorist you are not credible and will only convince like minded gullible people.
Mark I applaud your efforts and am impressed. Honestly I asked those questions because if I'm to respect your opinions it helps to know that you care.
I too only flush the low volume toilet when I need to. I keep my thermostat around 68 in the winter and use a swamp cooler in the summer. I have desert landscaping and my water bill rarely exceeds $15 in an outrageous month. I purposefully bought a home as close to where I work as I could stand so if I have to ride my bicycle to work I can.
So Mark we're on common ground on a lot of our practices. As you can see from my earlier opinions I don't deny that humans have an impact on our environment. I just haven't been shown credible evidence that our emission of CO2 is ruining the planet. There's evidence that a rise in CO2 levels has a concurrent effect on the increase in plant life. Well guess what plants do? Convert CO2 to O2.
We have a personal responsibility to keep our footprint small. We don't need the government to jam it down our throat.
As per usual, Mark thinks that if he doesn't believe something, it couldn't be true. Dare I spend my evening listing link after link showing that global government is in the works?
Why bother, Mark has made up his mind, so it doesn't exist. It must be comforting to have such a closed mind...
Winston has also flunked reading comprehension. Please read my post just below and note I am criticizing the conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact, such as the stupid one about global governance put forth by this crank.
Jimmy Jay,
Well you call them misguided but who are you to make such a claim? What do you know and how do you know it?
Far from living like a serf I thought the goal of libertarians was to be more self sufficient (please note I do not subscribe to such naivety) which with my lowered utility bills I am. In most people's quest to own more stuff, that stuff demands more of their time, which is limited, and takes it away from forming real human relationships. Perhaps this explains much of the sociopathic nature of people involved in such acquisition???
That's right, Mark. There has never been a conspiracy in our government, or in the U.N. Everyone can trust our leaders, go back to sleep, and do what you're told. There really were WMD's in Iraq, there really was a incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, and nobody in government will ever try to take your liberties.
Keep moving, move along, nothing to see here...