By Gene Hall 

The EPA’s “endangerment finding” on carbon emissions is a potential body blow to an already struggling U.S. economy. Essentially, it does what the Obama administration, environmental lobbyists and the leadership of Congress could not do—that is, pass a law to impose Cap and Trade with draconian regulations that limit carbon emissions.

The public, in any opinion survey you want to look up, is forcefully saying we do not want this. Elected officials, understanding the need to be re-elected, have noticed. A version did pass the House, but most of Congress is praying the Senate does not act. For them, the issue is radioactive—a ticket to retirement. Why? Because it will hurt the U.S. economy by imposing strict regulations, fees and taxes on anything productive.

 This does not disturb the unelected legions at EPA. They plan to impose most of Cap and Trade via regulatory edict. Agriculture would be particularly hard hit for two reasons. First, no one has yet figured out how to raise a crop without driving machinery across a field. Second, agriculture is unique in its inability to pass along increases in the cost of production.

I have a copy of a letter to the administrators at EPA co-written by the chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Dr. Bryan Shaw, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. It runs most of six pages and has some pretty complex legal and scientific arguments. Previously, EPA had called upon their counterpart agencies at the state level to endorse their planned permitting process for greenhouse gases. Basically, Texas is saying “no thanks.”

In part, the letter reads, “…Texas has neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring or amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emissions.” 

Here’s more: “In order to avoid the absurd results of EPA’s own creation, you have developed a ‘tailoring rule’ in which you have substituted your own judgment for Congress’s as to how deep and wide to spread the permitting burden. Notably absent from your rules is any evidence that they would achieve specific results…”

That’s really the point of the whole Cap and Trade jihad. No proponent has suggested that it would improve the climate. You’d think that would give them pause, but no. Words like “cost,” “benefit” and “consequences” do not seem to matter.

The letter goes into detail as to how the proposed EPA regulations run afoul of the U.S. and Texas constitutions. The regulations also have problems with the Texas Government Code. I wonder if other states are discovering similar difficulties. Shaw and Abbott say EPA has not provided the proper notice required and equate the EPA request to a “demand for a loyalty oath from the State of Texas.”

This whole mess is in the courthouse, folks. 

My opinion is that the regulatory apparatus of the U.S. government has seriously overstepped in this and other areas. There is a lot of promise in the new green energy technologies the White House has talked about, but they will only work as a legitimate response to market forces. Command and control from these unelected regulators will not—and cannot—work. This is not only wrong, but, in the view of people in a position to know, illegal.

If this power grab cannot be stopped, we will likely pay the tab with an even weaker economy that is overtaxed, overregulated and unable to create desperately needed jobs. Needless to say, we’d be less able to deal with future disaster—environmental or otherwise.

Read the entire letter . It’s a real eye opener.

Visit the Texas Farm Bureau website at www.txfb.org .
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