More Power-Grabbing: EPA Rules Air Is a Danger, Now Is the Wolf Guarding the Chicken Coop
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 8, 2009
Global warming tyranny... EPA now rules that AIR is a danger to human health, giving itself more power over our lives
Don’t breathe… the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that air is a danger to human health. And in so doing, has not only revised natural science, but has given itself, with Obama’s arrogant nod of approval, unprecedented power over our lives. It’s like appointing the wolf to guard the chicken coop.
From Hot Air, EPA declares air a danger to human health:
For the first time ever, the Environmental Protection Agency has declared a naturally-occurring substance in the air a danger to human health. Carbon dioxide, which has existed as a major component of Earth’s atmosphere for billions of years — and which is necessary for plant growth — is now a declared pollutant.
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The EPA and the Obama administration threatened to do this when their cap-and-trade bill first began to stall on Capitol Hill. The determination of CO2 as a pollutant — which is patently ridiculous on its face — allows the White House to bypass Congress and begin dictating to producers on carbon-emission reductions.
Don’t kid yourself into thinking the EPA doesn’t understand the scope of its power. By classifying CO2 and methane (among other so-called greenhouse gases), it can inject itself into just about every industry in the US. Energy production will be its primary target, but the EPA has also gone after coal mining on the basis of the Clean Water Act; it will certainly not be shy about using this new authority to kill coal mining altogether. It will also impact agriculture, especially dairies and cattle ranching, as well as transportation. The entire manufacturing sector will have to answer for its output.
This really is the worst of all outcomes.
From Associated Press, EPA says greenhouse gases endanger human health:
Business groups have strongly argued against tackling global warming through the Clean Air Act, saying it is less flexible and more costly than the cap-and-trade bill being considered before Congress. On Monday, some of those groups questioned the timing of the EPA’s announcement, calling it political.
“The implications of today’s action by EPA are far-reaching…individual Americans and consumers and businesses alike will be dramatically affected by this decision,” said Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. Drevna, in a statement, said “it is hardly the time to risk the remainder of the U.S. industrial sector in an attempt to achieve a short-term international public relations victory.”
Any regulations are also likely to spawn lawsuits and lengthy legal fights.
The EPA and the White House have said regulations on greenhouse gases will not be imminent even after an endangerment finding, saying that the administration would prefer that Congress act to limit such pollution through an economy-wide cap on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Nevertheless, 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 miles per gallon by 2016 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The EPA’s readiness to tackle climate change is expected to give a boost to U.S. arguments at the climate conference opening in Copenhagen this week, where the United States offer a provisional target to reduce greenhouse gases.
From Science Insider, Copenhagen Opens: Obama Fires What Bullets He Has on Climate Actions:
Here’s their pitch: America has sped up regulations for carbon emissions for cars. It’s boosted energy research way up (including, as seen today, rather wild research.) The full House of Representatives has passed a bill and the Senate has passed one in committee, allowing Obama some credibility when he committed the United States to a 17% cut in 2005 emissions by 2020, if Congress acts.
Today the Administration went the final step, announcing that EPA has legally determined greenhouse gasses to be a danger to human health under the Clean Air Act.
From Watts Up With That?, EPA about to declare CO2 dangerous – ssshhh! – Don’t tell the trees:
I can’t find the words to describe the illogic behind the EPA with this ruling. Perhaps it is best to say that bureaucrats don’t understand anything but regulations and leave it at that.
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But there’s an interesting twist, just two days ago, the University of Wisconsin says that CO2 is accelerating forest growth. Of course, bureaucrats wouldn’t understand this, because they can’t regulate tree growth.
From Politico, Critics start fast in Copenhagen:
And back in Washington, a senior House Republican took the EPA to task for declaring that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health without investigating the e-mail scandal first.
“Why the rush? What’s to hide?” California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked in a statement.
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But the e-mails were certainly a hot topic of discussion, both inside and outside the Bella Center. Saudi negotiator Mohammed al-Sabban said during Monday’s opening session that the e-mails would “definitely” take a toll on “what could be trusted in our negotiations.”
“Many, many things are happening and coming together at this moment,” said skeptic Fred Singer. “Copenhagen could be the turning point when people realize that they’ve been led around by their noses.”
Singer, who believes the Earth is cooling rather than warming, accused climate change activists of trying to “slough off” the scandal.
“They’ve tried to hide it, and they’ve tried to destroy the evidence,”he said. “We’ve known for a long time that the data is questionable. Now we can be sure of it.”
Skeptic Leighton Steward, who presented himself as an environmentalist and “sometime energy industry executive,” said he’d flown to Copenhagen because the U.N. conference provides a unique opportunity for him to argue that “the Earth is almost starved of carbon dioxide” – even if he’s not allowed inside to make his case.
More on ClimateGate and the criminal global warming scam:
Gary Sutton, Forbes.com: The Fiction Of Climate Science – Why the climatologists get it wrong
Alfonso Rachel, Big Hollywood: Save the Planet, Hold Your Breath… Liberals first
Michelle Malkin: The EPA’s war on carbon and Save the planet: Erase Copenhagen’s carbon footprint! and All the president’s ClimateGate deniers
JunkScience: Feature: Checking their homework and Are we really sure the world is too warm? and Welcome to a Short Course on “Junk Science Judo”
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: I Can’t Copenhagen
GOP Exiles: IPCC Climate Change scientists lied
Watts Up With That?: American Thinker: Understanding Climategate’s Hidden Decline
Half-Baked Sourdough: A Climate Scientist Speaks
Per Strandberg, Global Warming And The Climate: The causes of global warming and climate change and Facts About Global Warming!
Politiken.dk: Parliamentary Speaker: Climate debate derailed?
VotingFemale Speaks!: EPA to Attack US Economy by declaring CO2 toxic; without CO2, all plant life would die and Saudi Arabia drops ClimateGate Bomb on Copenhagen and Climategate bigger than Watergate; Al Gore’s Credibility is Permanently Destroyed
Reason Magazine: We-Don’t-Want-To-Talk-About-It-Gate
Weasel Zippers: Copenhagen Climate Summit: 1,200 Limos, 140 Private Jets…Only 5 Hybrid or Electric Vehicles….
Gateway Pundit: Danish Speaker Warns About Global Warming Junk Science and Sarah Palin Tells Obama to Boycott Copenhagen in Light of Climategate and Man Crashes TV Shot to Call on Media to Cover Climategate (Video) – Winter Storm Dumps Snow In Houston and Climategate: Mann Throws Jones Under the Bus and Barbara Boxer: “You call it Climategate — I Call it E-Mail-Theft-Gate” (Video) and White House Still Believes In Non-Existent Global Warming and “Hockey Stick” Graph Creator Mann to Be Investigated by Penn State and Obama to Attend International Junk Science Meeting on Non-Existent Global Warming and Media Ignores Climategate Even as NASA Is Dragged Into the Scandal and Senator Inhofe Will Call For Investigation Into Global Warming Email Scandal
The Foundry, Heritage.org: Climategate: From Skepticism to Investigation
Small Dead Animals: How Important Is CRU Data?
Planet Gore, National Review: Tipping Point for the Climate Horror Show?
Another Black Conservative: Sarah Palin To Obama: Boycott Copenhagen
Green Hell Blog: Skeptics winning in UK and India rejects global warming junk science and Electricity projected to skyrocket in Georgia under carbon law
John A, Watts Up With That?: A devastating response to “There’s nothing to see here, move along”
World Climate Report: Where Are All The Drowning Polar Bears?
FOX News: Copenhagen Climate Conference to Create ‘Huge’ Carbon Footprint
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “It’s My Nation’s Carbon Footprint, and I’ll Enlarge It if I Want To…” Copenhagen Attendees Ignore ClimateGate Scandal, Will Negatively Impact World’s Environment & Don’t Care and Uh, Oh… Jon Stewart Mocks Al Gore and ClimateGate Liars (video) and Shaky House of Cards… Australia Parliament Has Voted “NO” on Global Warming/Cap and Trade Bill and ClimateGate Fraud Phil Jones Slinks Away in Disgrace from CRU… Should Be Tossed into Jail for His Global Warming Hoax and ClimateGate’s Lies and Deception to Hide the Decline: The Heat’s On, Dump the Data! and Global Warming Scam: Scientific Data in “Hockey Stick” Graph Bogus, Uh, ‘Fudged’ (video) and Climategate: Rush Limbaugh on Global Warming Hoax & Three Siberian Tree Rings… There Is No Global Warming
Energy Tribune: The End of Global Warming
Patterico’s Pontifications: AGW Defender: Let’s Not Engage in Character Assassination and Overheated Debate . . . You Asshole and East Anglia CRU Chief Steps Down (For Now) and East Anglia Scientists Agree to Publish Data
Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters: ClimateGate’s Michael Mann Being Investigated By Penn State
Mike Flynn, Big Government: ClimateGate Roundup: All the News Not Fit to Print
Pundit & Pundette: Politico talks to Gore but no one mentions Climategate Scientism vs. science and Oopsy: Raw data gone
Hot Air: Do hacked e-mails show global-warming fraud?
Weird science: East Anglia CRU threw out their raw data
Sister Toldjah: Estimated Copenhagen carbon footprint: 40,584 tons and ClimateGate fallout continues: CRU admits original data deleted
Watts Up With That?: Google trends on “climategate” show public interest increasing – but troubling questions loom
The Powers That Be: Al Gore: CO2 Increases Cause Warming, Never the Other Way Around, Except Sometimes and More Bad News for Gore
Nice Deb: Global Warming Alarmists Doubling Down On Stupid and Amazing Coincidence!: “Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress”
Pierre Legrand’s Pink Flamingo Bar: The Devil’s Kitchen: CRUdGate – Why this can’t be swept under the carpet
The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE: All That’s Wrong With Global Warming Advocates
Yahoo: India rejects Danish climate proposal
GayPatriot: On global warming, “The science is settled… and Climategate: ‘The Scandal Of The Century’
Times Online: Climate change data dumped
GayPatriot: Ma’am Tries to Change Climategate Narrative and Hide the Decline
Climate Change Fraud: Climategate: how the Copenhagen Grinches stole Christmas
Mark Steyn, NRO: The Dog Ate My Tree Rings
Climate Skeptic: A Total Bluff and Missing the Main Arguments and
Cognitive Dissonance
EUReferendum: The Tiger Woods Index
Daily Mail: Scientist in climate change ‘cover-up’ storm told to quit
About the author
Bottom line here is the EPA power grab is unconstitutional.
Sen. Webb D.VA sent a letter to Obama stating that fact.
The letter is posted on MM’s blog.
With this administration the Congress is liable to become irrelevant, and the American voter along with it.
This country is going to rise up and teach this immature, petulant ego-maniac a lesson.
He is blinded by his arrogance. He can not accept any criticism. He intimidates his opponents, and ignores his country’s populace opinion.
His dictatorial aspirations will be eliminated by the Shining City on the Hill.
This guy thinks he can take on America? C’mon sucker!
America is not Chicago.
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[...] Error & Another Bogus Claim from Gore: “Earth’s Core Is Millions of Degrees” and More Power-Grabbing: EPA Rules Air Is a Danger, Now Is the Wolf Guarding the Chicken Coop and “It’s My Nation’s Carbon Footprint, and I’ll Enlarge It if I Want To…” Copenhagen [...]