Ending the War on CO₂
The EPA recently announced it was scrapping the Endangerment Finding and will no longer be treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
In 2010, Rolling Stone criticized President Barack Obama for “leading from behind” on climate change after his comprehensive energy bill died, with the administration admitting it lacked the votes to pass it.
“Instead of taking the fight to big polluters,” the magazine declared, “President Obama has put global warming on the back burner.”
Rolling Stone didn’t seem to realize that Obama’s administration had already pulled off the biggest “climate” coup in US history. The previous year, in what became known as the Endangerment Finding, the Environmental Protection Agency declared that “greenhouse gases” pose a threat to public health and welfare and therefore fall within the agency’s regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act.
The EPA’s definition of “greenhouse gases” included carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) — emissions produced by mammals — yet neither appears in the original Clean Air Act or its 1970 amendments, which form today’s regulatory framework. With a stroke of a pen, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson simply classified them as pollutants, meaning that exhaling or passing gas was, in effect, polluting.
To some, this might sound humorous, but to others, especially those who see climate change as an apocalypse, it’s no laughing matter. Columbia University magazine recently argued that farm animal burps are fueling global warming, which is why some today argue humans must drastically rethink food production to save the planet.
Many people, however, are skeptical that government-led efforts to ramp back carbon dioxide emissions will create a better world, including the Trump administration.
Earlier this month, the EPA announced it was scrapping the Endangerment Finding.
“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
