The Wall Street Journal took a sledgehammer to a scheme by President Joe Biden’s administration to push job-killing climate regulations without congressional approval.
A new Journal editorial exposed how “Democratic AGs, green groups, and a top Biden environmental regulator are colluding on a plan to impose the Green New Deal on states through a back regulatory door because they know they can’t pass it through the front in Congress.” (Read the op-ed in full here)
As the editorial described it, “Climate activists have long sought to force CO2 emissions reductions under the Clean Air Act, but this has been tricky. The Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007) ruled that the law’s general definition of ‘pollutant’ covered greenhouse gases.”
However, “the Court didn’t tell the [Environmental Protection Agency] how it should regulate CO2 under the law.”
The EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six “‘criteria pollutant[s]’ known to directly harm human health: nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, ozone, and particulate matter.”
However, “CO2 doesn’t cause asthma or other diseases, and CO2 emissions generated locally can’t be reliably measured,” The Journal said. “[T]he Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set deadlines for states to meet their primary NAAQS for criteria pollutants within 10 years.”
The Journal summarized that “it’s technically infeasible and legally questionable to regulate CO2 as a criteria pollutant.” The fact that regulating CO2 would be “technically infeasible” and “legally questionable” apparently hasn’t stopped Team Biden.
The Journal named former Obama administration EPA official and current Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation Joseph Goffman.
Specifically, the paper identified Goffman as the mastermind behind the plan to use “backdoor” methods to force states to regulate CO2. Goffman was responsible for EPA’s NAAQS.
The Journal outlined the nefarious carbon regulation scheme in detail:
Emails obtained by Chris Horner at Energy Policy Advocates, which were shared with us, show Democratic AGs in 2019 consulted Mr. Goffman, then at Harvard Law School, on using the NAAQS to regulate CO2.
(….)
Consultants referred by Mr. Goffman told the AGs that regulating CO2 as a criteria pollutant wouldn’t fly. But they proposed using ozone NAAQS as what one called a ‘backdoor.’ Fossil fuel combustion, motor vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions contribute to ozone.
Through the “backdoor” method, said The Journal, “[T]he EPA could make states reduce CO2 emissions by tightening ozone standards. States might have to outlaw natural gas-powered appliances, gas stations, and internal combustion engines to meet stricter ozone standards.”
The Journal also noted that “[a]ny climate legislation Congress enacts will no doubt contain a potpourri of green energy subsidies, but Democrats won’t be able to use budget reconciliation to banish fossil fuels.”
But with Goffman serving in the Biden administration, he has now been placed “in [a] position to execute their plan at the Biden EPA.”
The Journal noted that Democratic Attorneys General had already begun their push to regulate CO2 just a day before Biden’s inauguration:
Sixteen Democratic AGs on Jan. 19—a day before Mr. Biden’s inauguration—challenged the EPA’s current ozone NAAQS. Their one paragraph lawsuit says the standards are ‘unlawful, arbitrary and capricious and therefore must be vacated.’ Their aim is to hasten a replacement ozone rule that regulates CO2.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818-460-7477), CBS News (212-975-3247), and NBC News (212- 664-6192) and demand they report on the Biden administration’s scheme to go around Congress to force states to regulate CO2.
Read more at NewsBusters
After a good thunder storm, most people would agree that the air seems fresher, cleaner. That is partly due to the natural ozone produced by lightning .
I once worked in a lab that used deuterium lamps to produce high intensity ultraviolet light. The UV light generated ozone in concentrations high enough that we could smell it. Our company hired a consultant to investigate possible health hazards. The result was even right by the instruments that were generating the ozone the concentration wasn’t high enough to be a health hazard. Using ozone as an excuse to reduce the use of fossil fuels is a lame excuse by people with the lowest possible integrity who are trying to advance their political agendas.
Biden claims to love science. Unfortunately, like most politicians and journalists, he doesn’t know the first thing about it. As far as CO2 goes, it is essential to life and inconsequential to climate. Temperature variable CO2 solubility changes CO2 levels with temperature, Joe. Not the other way around. We know this because ice core data detailing the last eight hundred thousand years proves that CO2 levels follow temp changes. All life dies without CO2 Joe. That is not pollution – that is the basic stuff of life. Carbon Dioxide, through photosynthesis, is the basic ingredient of life on earth – that’s science Joe. CO2 provides the carbon backbone of every fat, every protein, every DNA molecule that IS life on earth Joe. Photosynthesis produces every bit of the biochemical energy required for all life to exist. That’s science Joe. And photosynthesis has produced and continues to replenish every molecule of the oxygen we breathe. That’s science Joe. CO2 is the foundational molecule of life on earth and every carbon-based lifeform that is our web of life, Joe. That is the science of biology, Joe. It is true and it is beautiful. And it is totally dependant on sufficient concentrations of CO2. Not the starvation level lows we have today. And CO2 levels have been dangerously declining from luxuriant levels as high as 7000ppm at the beginning of multicellular life. Declining to within 30ppm of life beginning to die Joe. That is science. We are in an ongoing ice age, Joe. It’s called the Pleistocene Ice Age. Temperatures naturally vary within that ice age by about twelve to thirteen degrees C. That’s science, Joe. The coldest two-thirds of the Pleistocene are glacials. The warmest one-third are called interglacials. We are in an interglacial now Joe. It’s called the Holocene. Temperatures naturally vary by four degrees C, Joe. Each glacial/interglacial cycle lasts 100,000 years Joe. It’s driven by our solar neighbor’s gravitational effect on the shape of earth’s orbit, Joe. Right now it’s circular. But it changes to elongated ellipsoidal, Joe. And things get a lot colder when it does. Ice advances thousands of feet thick as far south as NYC. But for the next couple thousand years you don’t have to worry, Joe. Because temperatures remain well within the last twelve thousand year Holocene normal, natural range. That is the science of climate Joe. And the science of life. CO2 is essential to life. CO2 is insignificant to climate. So quit trying to abandon 85% of the world’s energy in the Dumb Energy idea that you can replace 24/7/365 energy with energy that doesn’t work when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. It doesn’t work, as Texas can tell you. Trying to do it requires complete redundancy so it triples the cost. Just compare the cost of energy in Germany (near the highest in the world) to America’s Joe. It’s one-third as expensive. And it’s completely unnecessary for the climate. I know your head is spinning Joe, but let me give you a few simple numbers. Lack of energy deaths worldwide are about twelve million per year. Climate related deaths one hundred years ago were five hundred thousand per year. Today, they’re about fifty-six thousand. In spite of a near three-fold increase in population over the same time period. That makes climate safety an incredible success story Joe. Wake up. Dodder off and get your wife to explain it to you.
Joe knows diddly. He is the anti-Trump.
Thanks for your work we can usr it to fight our government in Canada as well.
We should be happy that the level of CO2 is increasing. More CO2 will be a boon to all things that grow; it’s like giving free fertiliser to the world. It also means that there will be more vegetation and phytoplankton, which will absorb more CO2. The ideal level for robust growth of vegetables and plants is probably around 1,600 ppm, almost four times the present level which is why growers pump CO2 into their greenhouses.
Submariners live happily with CO2 at 1,000 ppm in their submarines.
The more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the more oxygen there is for us to breathe, courtesy of the trees, plants and the phytoplankton in the seas.
There are other reasons why we should be happy that CO2 is on the increase:
• more CO2 stimulates plants to reduce the pores on their leaves through which water from the plants is evaporated, meaning plants need less water to grow. Needing less water, plants will grow in areas that were too dry to support them before;
• in a higher CO2 environment, plants need less light for photosynthesis, a boon for northern latitudes;
• more CO2 causes plants to develop longer root systems, so they can travel further for essential nutrients in the soil;
• in a recent study of 475 plants, increasing CO2 from the then 410 ppm to 710 ppm increased the growth of the plants by 50% on average;
• More plants means more food for animals. We eat plants and some animals.
Go figure.
Anyone who would argue with you is a DENIER.
CO2 is not pollution. It is an essential chemical in the cycle of life on earth in terms of photosynthesis and respiration.
Joe’s plan includes informing the public about truth and facts about climate change … https://newtube.app/user/RAOB/KX3Jgsm
The Obama administration conducted tests in order to justify tighter emission on ozone. They took people with respiratory problems and exposed them to high levels of ozone. Despite the bias built into the test not a single subject demonstrated an adverse reaction. Today the back door regulation might proceed on the assumption ozone standards need to be tighten with no justification.
If reducing CO2 levels can not get passed Congress on its own merit, then it shouldn’t be implemented.