EPA Carbon Regs May Derail Cap and Trade

[bonnie]

EPA carbon regs may derail cap and trade

Joesph Smith

The EPA's threat to impose greenhouse gas regulations, hanging like a Sword of Damocles over Congress, may have backfired.

The Obama administration's announcement of the EPA "endangerment finding" for CO2, timed to coincide with the start of the Copenhagen climate talks, was intended to allow the President to claim his country was on board with the international climate agenda. However, the EPA may have inadvertently given Congress an out on cap-and-trade legislation.

Kimberly Strassel's Wall Street Journal column, descriptively titled "The EPA's Carbon Bomb Fizzles" paints an intriguing scenario:

In the high-stakes game of chicken the Obama White House has been playing with Congress over who will regulate the earth's climate, the president's team just motored into a ditch. So much for threats...

President Obama, having failed to get climate legislation, didn't want to show up to the Copenhagen climate talks with a big, fat nothing. So the EPA pulled the pin. In doing so, it exploded its own threat.

Far from alarm, the feeling sweeping through many quarters of the Democratic Congress is relief. Voters know cap-and-trade is Washington code for painful new energy taxes. With a recession on, the subject has become poisonous in congressional districts

The closer the November election gets, the less the Senate will like this issue. And the pressure may be off Congress for a time, since the EPA could now be viewed as the owner of an increasingly unpopular idea:

"The Obama administration now owns this political hot potato," says one industry source. "If I'm [Nebraska Senator] Ben Nelson or [North Dakota Senator] Kent Conrad, why would I ever want to take it back?"

The endangerment finding and the proposed EPA regulations are likely to set off a flood of litigation. Use of the Clean Air Act to regulate CO2 as a pollutant invites challenge by industry groups. On the other side, the EPA attempt to limit regulation to the largest producers invites environmentalist lawsuits to force the EPA to regulate all sources, large and small, right down to the home lawn mower.

As the Strassel column notes, "the agency is going to get hit from all sides," which will at a minimum complicate implementation of the EPA rules.

Then there are the leaked Climategate e-mails, inviting challenge to the science, and a related column by a Colorado State professor of Atmospheric Science said of the international climate conspiracy:

This conspiracy would become much more manifest if all the e-mails of the publicly funded climate research groups of the US and of foreign governments were ever made public.

Never underestimate the desire of Congress to run with a bad idea, but the EPA's stake in the ground, added to the Climategate issue and a very close House vote, may have handed some Democrat Senators a breather from an unpalatable vote on cap-and-trade in an already difficult election year.

To borrow from Robert Burns:

The best laid schemes o' mice and central planners...

[Dr. Shane]

Something needs to be decided one way or the other. This issue just hanging out there is hurting the economy.

[bonnie]

Something needs to be decided one way or the other. This issue just hanging out there is hurting the economy.

Many have been saying that for some time now. Passing it there is no questin s to what it will do with the economy

[Dr. Shane]

Passing it will definitely create a greater shift away from manufacturing in the US. In fact, the US manufacturing industry relies a lot on automation. That is, machines do a lot of things here that people do in other countries. This saves us money spent on labor which keeps us competitive with other nations. However all of those automated machines use electricity. If cap and trade is passed, our competitive advantage goes away. Our factories close or move to Mexico (good for me - bad for the rest of the country).

The US will survive regardless. It is just a matter of adjustment and a painful one at that. Cap and trade will prolong the recession. Of course, Obama thinks there will be all these alternative energy jobs. Not sure where those will come from. If Congress opened up off-shore drilling and limited legal challenges by environmental groups to being resolved within a year of first being filed - an abundance of energy jobs would be created that are high paying.

[bonnie]

Quote:

The US will survive regardless. It is just a matter of adjustment and a painful one at that. Cap and trade will prolong the recession. Of course, Obama thinks there will be all these alternative energy jobs. Not sure where those will come from. If Congress opened up off-shore drilling and limited legal challenges by environmental groups to being resolved within a year of first being filed - an abundance of energy jobs would be created that are high paying.

I realize not everyone believes as I do but your assurance that the US will survive regardless is not borne out by what I read.

There will come a day that all those that expect this to go on and on without end will be a little surprised I think.

Cap and trade will do more than prolong a recession. Most small businesses cannot survive under that. I am sure you disagree but I will put my faith in the ones that do run small businesses,worry about keeping existing business and developing new business,ever increasing taxes and regulations,employee insurance and benefits,and at the end of the week knowing no matter what employee's must be paid. Even before your own family at times.

Those that work for salary or wage can afford to be a bit more cavalier about a "recession"

They have very little first hand knowledge I would take to the bank

[Dr. Shane]

It depends to what extent it is applied. And then there is always 2010 and 2012 and the will of the people. I have little doubt the US will survive. Unless the Lord returns first. Then all bets are off.

[bonnie]

It depends to what extent it is applied. And then there is always 2010 and 2012 and the will of the people. I have little doubt the US will survive. Unless the Lord returns first. Then all bets are off.

To what it would look like when first passed and the foot is let in the door rarely is that the full scope of the ultimate goal.

The will of the people really don't seem to matter much.If possible this and all the other crippling idea's and plans will come in on a steam roller.

I don't think anyone was claiming the US would not survive.The US surviving as we know it is a much different question.

Whether the Lord returns next year or decades down the road the US will stand in some form. Decades as a socialist country is very unappealing.

Socialism cannot get a foothold in a thriving economy and that we don't have. We do have several Obama proclaimed "crisis"that must be dealt with in the most drastic way.

Obama has a different ideology than this country was founded on.