How sad it is that this once great democracy has devolved to a leftist dictatorship with Obama as its head.
His EPA on Monday declared emissions of “greenhouse gasses” including carbon dioxide and five others to be a danger to human health. That’s right, Obama’s administrative agency has declared carbon dioxide hazardous to your health. Think of it, when you flatulate (pass gas), the EPA says it is harmful to your health. I wonder if it would be harmful if you stopped flatulating, even though it would more pleasant for the rest of us!
But I joke, only to show the silliness and seriousness of this very dangerous action. No doubt this announcement was timed to coincide with the opening of the Copenhagen climate talks where our erstwhile leader plans to contribute his “fair share,” $10 Billion of your money. Our young US prince rides into town with his nobel peace prize in hand and leads the US and Europe into economic collapse. And this in face of evidence that the global warming data has been manipulated to show a preordained conclusion that profits the Al-Gorelike prophets of doom. Could Alice in Wonderland have been in a more sane environment?
US industry is worried because in a sense our economy and in fact our country runs on things that produce CO2. Whether its that Big Mac you eat, the CNN show you watch, or the electric light switch you flip on, carbon dioxide is produced. The utilities are particularly worried, worried that some unelected bureaucrat at Obama’s EPA will shut them down. Or shut them down economically by requiring expensive processes and equipment that will raise the cost of production beyond affordability. Yes, in the end this all translates into a carbon tax that the American consumer will pay. Now the EPA is not required to consider economics in its rule making.
But never fear, an EPA spokeswoman–excuse me spokesperson–in defending the “dangerous to human health” finding, said ” we invite the public to review the extensive scientific analysis informing” it. (Yeah, right!) Yet Obama and his EPA totally ignore the East Anglia University email fraud debunking global warming, otherwise known as Climategate.
So today the WSJ reports that US industry is asking Congress to regulate it! How often to you see businessmen asking to be regulated? You would expect industry executives to oppose regulation. In fact, they generally do oppose it. But where they fear something worse, like uninformed fiat imposed by a dictator’s unaccountable minions, they need to influence the outcome. Thus they want to bring the regulatory proposals into the political process, talk to representatives and senators who depend on contributions to be re-elected. So for the businessmen it’s the lesser of two evils and understandable.
What’s puzzling though is why Obama would want to take uneconomic action, especially job-killing action in the midst of a recession, and at a time when his deficits are breaking records, his national debt pile up is beyond sustainability and the action will produce no environmental results. Can hubris be that strong? Or ignorance that deep? Or lust for power that blinding? I’m at a loss for an answer.
‘Tis a sad day for America, indeed!
Tom Motherway