Breathe Deep, America. Carbon Dioxide Is Good For You!

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The bozos in Assington, DC masquerading because the federal authorities are complete prisoners of the fossil gasoline trade. Have a look backstage at any of their cockamamie proposals and nearly all of them contain eradicating restrictions on oil, fuel, and coal, and growing the quantity of carbon dioxide within the ambiance. Power secretary Chris Wright is telling African leaders that burning coal is nice for them as a result of it labored properly for America 100 years in the past. Sufficient vitality from the solar strikes the Earth daily to energy all human wants, however as a substitute of profiting from that free vitality,which is able to final for billion of years, it’s higher to devour the restricted quantity of fossil fuels that took tens of hundreds of thousands of years to create.

Right here’s the argument in a nutshell. Carbon dioxide is important to photosynthesis, the method by which vegetation use daylight to transform it into the parts they should develop. Due to this fact, the extra carbon dioxide there may be, the higher, proper? Any sixth grader may clarify why that evaluation is defective. Water is important to life as properly, however an excessive amount of of it may be deadly, because the passengers aboard the Titanic found to their dismay on April 14, 1912.

Carbon Dioxide & The Endangerment Rule

A bit historical past is important right here. Firstly of this century, there was nice debate about whether or not the Environmental Safety Company had the authority underneath the Clear Air Act to manage carbon dioxide emissions. In 2007, the US Supreme Courtroom, within the case of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agencydetermined that “greenhouse gases fit well within the Act’s capacious definition of “air pollutant” and that EPA due to this fact had statutory authority to manage GHG emissions from new motor autos. That discovering lead to what’s identified on the “endangerment finding” by the company in 2009. That discovering is the premise for all greenhouse fuel rules since that point. The discovering concluded that the buildup of six key greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride — within the ambiance endangers public well being and welfare.

On March 12, 2025, present EPA administrator Lee Zeldin proudly introduced 31 separate actions to roll again restrictions on air and water air pollution, hand over extra authority to states (however not California to manage auto emissions inside its borders), and relinquish EPA’s mandate to behave on local weather change underneath the Clear Air Act. “These announcements represent the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States,” the EPA mentioned in a press releases. Zeldin mentioned the strikes would decrease the price of residing, create jobs, and revitalize the economic system. In a video posted on the social media website X, Zeldin exulted over the plan to rescind the endangerment discovering.

“I’ve been told the endangerment finding is considered the holy grail of the climate change religion,” mentioned Zeldin, a former Congressman and Military intelligence officer. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed, no exceptions. Today, the green new scam ends.” However environmental advocates voiced dedication to battle again towards an onslaught. They warned it could hurt public well being and set again the nation’s way of life. “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin today announced plans for the greatest increase in pollution in decades,” mentioned Amanda Leland, govt director of Environmental Protection Fund. “The result will be more toxic chemicals, more cancers, more asthma attacks and more dangers for pregnant women and their children. Rather than helping our economy, it will create chaos.”

The Environmental Destruction Company

Based on Inside Climate NewsZeldin’s bulletins mark the beginning of a dismantling process that would take months and even years. To undo rules that return many years, EPA workers must write proposals, collect public feedback, and presumably maintain hearings and create a scientific and authorized document justifying any resolution. The latter will likely be wanted to defend towards inevitable lawsuits by environmentalists and states. All of this must be carried out by an company that’s severely hobbled by firings and plans to slash its funding to the bottom ranges in its 55-year historical past.

In a post on Bluesky, John Walke, clear air director and senior legal professional for the Pure Sources Protection Council, mentioned the sheer measurement of Zeldin’s effort could trigger it to break down on itself. “The same limited #s of EPA air office staff & attorneys work on many of these rules, Some have quit, some have been fired, more will be fired. EPA won’t have adequate resources to write defensible rollbacks.” The NRDC prevailed in a number of lawsuits towards the regulatory rollbacks of the primary Trump administration — in some instances, as a result of it had not adopted the long-standing legislation for public discover and remark of each regulatory and deregulatory actions.

Zeldin indicated he’s properly conscious of this potential pitfall. “The agency cannot prejudge the outcome of this reconsideration or of any future rule making,” he mentioned. “EPA will follow the Administrative Procedure Act and Clean Air Act, as applicable, in a transparent way for the betterment of the American people and the fulfillment of the rule of law.” He additionally pointed to latest Supreme Courtroom rulings limiting federal company authority as the reason why he expects the court docket to again his plan. The Supreme Courtroom lately has articulated a comparatively new doctrine which says that on problems with main financial consequence, regulatory companies can’t act with out specific directions from Congress. Readers needs to be conscious that the 2007 Supreme Courtroom resolution that led to the “endangerment rule” was a 5 to 4 resolution. The court docket as presently constituted doesn’t really feel constrained by precedent the best way courts previously have. In reality, it appears to enjoy the concept that the legislation is what these 9 justices say it’s at any specific level and that prior court docket rulings might be ignored with impunity. Whereas loudly decrying “activist judges,” it has been essentially the most activist and partisan court docket in American historical past. Maybe we’ll quickly see a reprise of the well-known Dred Scott decision because the court docket rushes to return America to the nice previous days.

Deregulation At All Prices

Along with reconsidering the 2009 endangerment discovering on greenhouse fuel emissions, the EPA is getting ready to rescind all rules that move from that call, together with these adopted underneath President Joe Biden to limit greenhouse fuel air pollution from energy vegetation and from vehicles and vans. Zeldin has additionally proposed ending the Greenhouse Fuel Reporting Program, the 15-year-old effort that seeks to determine the place greenhouse fuel emissions are being produced and the nation’s progress in decreasing them. That program has been extremely profitable. The bigger energy vegetation required to report their emissions underneath the EPA program have diminished their carbon dioxide air pollution by 7% relative to smaller vegetation that weren’t topic to reporting. That’s in line with a report published in 2021 by the National Bureau of Economic Researcha nonprofit group based mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

However Zeldin, in a full-throated protection of MAGA theology, referred to as the reporting program “another example of a bureaucratic government program that does not improve air quality. Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing millions of dollars, hurting small businesses and the ability to achieve the American Dream.” For those who thought the American Dream concerned having the ability to dwell in a clear and protected atmosphere, you’re a hopeless romantic or worse. Nothing have to be allowed to intrude with earnings, even when it means extra folks will get sick and die. You possibly can’t make an omelet with out breaking a couple of eggs, so cease your whining and buy groceries! We’re gonna make America nice once more if it kills us! (Which it very properly may.)

In response to Zeldin’s full frontal assault on environmental protections, Jason Walsh, the manager director of the BlueGreen Alliance, mentioned in an e mail to CleanTechnica“With this announcement, Lee Zeldin is driving a dagger into the hearts of workers and the American economy. Smart regulations create a triple win for workers, communities, and the environment while driving the private sector to be more innovative and competitive. These deregulations will severely harm, not help, everyday Americans. Low income, rural, and fence line communities, as well as communities of color, will bear the brunt of this attack on EPA’s core mission. Civil servants that keep our air and water clean are losing their jobs because Donald Trump cares for nobody but himself and his billionaire buddies. This administration has become a meal ticket for the rich to line their pockets, strip critical programs from vulnerable communities, and leave a legacy of corruption and broken promises.” To which we are saying, “Amen.”