On July 11, 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). This document details how the EPA intends to claim unlimited power over the life of every American. It invites public comment on the proposed rules.
This Capitalism Magazine article is the first of a seven part series, which will present six objections to the entirety of the EPA’s proposed rules. The total of our objections–our comments and the EPA site–may be accessed at: http://www.classicalideals.com/EPA_Ruination.htm
The EPA action follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defined carbon dioxide as a “pollutant.” This ruling defies logic, nature, and common sense. The Canadian Government has openly declared that carbon dioxide is a vital “nutrient”–without it, plants die. It is a natural compound that we exhale. It has always existed in nature, often at far higher levels than today. If carbon dioxide is a pollutant, then all human life is pollution.
In response, President Bush issued Executive Order # 13432 (May, 2007) directing the EPA, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Energy, “to ensure the coordinated and effective exercise of the authorities of the President and the heads of the [DOT], the Department of Energy, and [EPA] to protect the environment with respect to greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, nonroad vehicles, and nonroad engines . . .”
The EPA’s document starts with a clear warning that using the Clean Air Act to regulate CO2 will lead to uncontrollable growth of the agency’s power:
“EPA’s analyses leading up to this ANPR have increasingly raised questions of such importance that the scope of the agency’s task has continued to expand. For instance, it has become clear that if EPA were to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act, then regulation of smaller stationary sources that also emit GHGs [Greenhouse Gases]
