On Mark Levin’s radio broadcast on Monday, he called the new EPA rule being pushed by the Obama Administration for existing power plants to reduce CO2 emissions as the “greatest power grab since Obamacare.”
This proposed rule, for existing power plants, follows another rule for new power plants.
EPA chief Gina McCarthy, with very little media scrutiny, blatantly lied in testimony about the timing of a rule for new power plants” so that it would not interfere with the elections of Democrats.” There is no other way to say it. She lied.
The proposed rule for existing power plants was the subject of President Obama’s weekly address, and must be implemented and supported because pollution is racist or something, according to McCarthy. The rule, which “could increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent,” is the ultimate result of a ‘Presidential Memorandum.’
In 2001, President George W. Bush did not succumb to the pressure of the radical environmentalists to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants, citing “significantly higher electricity prices” based on a December, 2000 Department of Energy Report.
He wrote in part,
“I do not believe, however, that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide, which is not a ‘pollutant’ under the Clean Air Act.”
Notably, this rule and others like it, stem from years of battling whether CO2 should be classified as a “pollutant,” which would empower Congress (or unelected activists) to write laws to (or “rules”) to regulate it.
In a majority ruling in 2007, the Supreme Court said that it IS a pollutant, affirmed by former EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
At the time, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) gushed,
“After a four-year court battle, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled today 5-4 that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions are ‘air pollutants’ under the Clean Air Act, and that the U.S. government already has authority to start curbing them.”
Today, the NDRC touted the proposed EPA rule, saying that it is the “single most important thing our nation can do right now to fight climate change.”
The proposed rule in question today is for existing power plants, which will not only impact the employees of those plants, but those who use electricity.
At around 42:44, Levin explains,
“We have the Executive branch legislating in ways that Congress, under the control of a super majority of Democrats, refused to legislate [speaking of prior Democratic opposition to economy-busting and job-killing Cap and Trade legislation]…In the end, we have the Executive branch dictating to you and me, to our businesses, to our employers, to our work environment what it’s going to look like – closing down…coal mines, closing down what would be steel mills too – and driving up the cost of energy…Now that won’t be seen right away, but it will be seen and it will be huge…”
Levin is making the point that what President Obama failed to do through Congress – i.e., pass legislation, even with a Democratic majority – he is doing anyway, through the Federal Register.
The troubling thing about this rule, and all rules in the Federal Register, is that without representation, activists and unelected bureaucrats are empowered to impose their agenda on American citizens, flying in the face of the intent of the founding fathers.
This author would like to propose:
- Scrap the Federal Register.
- Require legislation to include it it’s text, the actual authors, as well as anyone who contributed to the writing of the legislation.
Comments on the rule can be submitted here.
Cross-posted at Tavern Keepers
