LORIS: Stuffed with CO2 regulations - Washington Times

LORIS: Stuffed with CO2 regulations - Washington Times

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson recently announced that her agency would proceed with twice-delayed regulations targeting power plants that emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Mrs. Jackson’s decision ignores three vital pieces of information that should make it easy for Congress to prevent unelected bureaucrats from regulating CO2:

• The EPA inspector general’s finding that EPA did not follow federal data quality standards in preparing its “endangerment finding” regarding greenhouse gases.

• The profusion of scientific dissent.

• The massive economic costs and minimal environmental benefits. In a move that makes Al Gore happy but will cripple our economy, President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has done an end-run around Congress and the Constitution by classifying and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. CO2 is not a pollutant - it is plant food. It's what makes plants grow. It is odorless, tasteless and completely non-toxic in the levels that are found in our atmosphere. This is the EPA's Plan B to force an unbiblical, radical environmental agenda on America because the votes aren't there in Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation. The EPA's move trashes the separation of powers in the Constitution. Unaccountable bureaucrats at this federal agency want to make U.S. energy policy and take that responsibility away from accountable elected officials.