Based on the Global Warming Hoax
It's time to stop the EPA's overreach, by Gary Palmer
12/11/15
Today, the Environmental Protection
Agency is one of the most powerful and most feared regulatory agencies in the
country. What was originally intended to be an agency with a relatively modest
charter has become much more powerful. The EPA is now claiming unrestrained
authority to issue regulations that have major negative consequences for the
American economy with little or no accountability to Congress.
Among the most onerous examples of
EPA overstepping its authority is the agency's efforts to regulate greenhouse
gasses. The EPA has been aided and abetted in its crusade by a controversial
5-4 U.S. Supreme
Court decision in Massachusetts
v. EPA. According to the Supreme
Court, because the definition of air
pollution in the Clean Air Act is so imprecisely broad, it can be interpreted
to grant the EPA the ability to regulate greenhouse gasses.
Others, including members of
Congress, disagreed. One member, former Congressman John Dingell, D-Mich., the
longest serving member of Congress in history, stated that it was never the
intent of Congress to allow the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Speaking at a
House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Dingell said that "I think
the Supreme
Court came up with a very much
erroneous decision on whether the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gases … I was
present when we wrote that legislation. We thought it was clear enough that …
even the Supreme Court was not stupid enough to make that finding."
He further said that it would be
"insane that [Congress] would be talking about leaving this kind of
judgment ... to a long and complex process of regulatory action,"
affecting "potentially every industry and every emitter and every person
in this country."
The debate over greenhouse gases
and climate
change is not the central issue. This
is really about the EPA usurping the authority of Congress to make law. As
Congressman Dingell explained, Congress never intended for the EPA to have this
sort of massive, unchecked regulatory power over almost every kind of activity.
The issue is that the authority of Congress, and consequently the right of
American citizens to representation in the making of our nation's laws, is
being seriously diminished by the EPA and other federal agencies.
Under our Constitution, Congress
makes the law and is held accountable by the people through elections. The
effort to restrain the EPA is more than a policy position on an issue, but a
matter of fidelity to the Constitution and the clear separation of powers
doctrine that is essential to the successful functioning of our government.
To directly address this issue in
regard to the EPA's attempt to regulate greenhouse gases I have introduced the
Stopping EPA Overreach Act of 2015 (H.R.3880). This bill, which has more than
120 co-sponsors, would not only amend existing laws to clarify that the
bureaucracy doesn't have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. It would
also serve to fortify the fact that nothing in current federal law authorizes
or requires regulation aimed at fighting climate
change.
The issue of global
warming or whatever else the EPA
proclaims is being affected by greenhouse gases can be legitimately debated in
Congress. In fact, Congress has already taken up the issue of carbon emissions.
In 2009 Congress took up the "Cap and Trade" bill, which passed the
House but has never received a vote in the Senate. It should be noted that
Democrats had overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate.
The EPA is not the only federal
agency that is overstepping the authority of Congress. Other federal agencies
have taken advantage of the failure of Congress to assert its lawmaking
authority and have taken it upon themselves to legislate through regulations at
a staggering rate and with enormously costly impact on our economy.
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