EPA EMBARKING ON CAT SCAM

By D. E. Lovett

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun its regulatory campaign to limit emissions of that dangerous pollutant, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. That’s right: the same pollutant that you emit with every breath, and that all plant life depends upon to grow, has now been declared hazardous to human health, and must be limited. All this in the name of slowing or reversing “global warming,” which is now supposed to be the greatest threat to life on earth- never mind nuclear war, starvation, poverty, disease, religious fanaticism, or any of the myriad threats we can actually do something about.

The most popular (among radical environmentalists) method of doing this is the scheme known as “cap and trade” (CAT). In its simplest form, CAT involves the federal government determining how much CO2 can safely be released (the “cap”), and issuing permits to the major producers of it. These producers can then either meet the cap, or exceed or underproduce it. If they exceed their cap, they can buy a higher cap from those who are under their cap, thus the “trade.”

CAT is fraught with so many perils that even the liberal-dominated 111th Congress found it too “toxic” to address. The Waxman-Markey proposal never made it out of committee, leaving the issue to the EPA, which now seems determined to enact regulations of dubious constitutionality. Congress has, seemingly, ceded to a regulatory bureaucracy its power to make law- a clear violation of the Constitution.

The problems with CAT are almost numberless. How will the “safe” levels of CO2 be determined? Which emitters will be targeted, and to what extent? What will the government charge for permits, and who will reap the monetary benefits? How will the proceeds be spent? What will the impact on consumers be, and how will the benefits be measured? On a deeper level, what is the morality of government benefiting monetarily from selling the right to pollute? This is right up there with “sin” taxes, which gross huge revenues, by taxing supposedly unhealthy behavior.

While it is not possible to measure all of the costs and benefits of CAT, there are a few certainties attached to the measure. The cost of energy will surely escalate, by measures estimated at between $1000 to $3000 per household per year. And the benefit, by the most optimistic measure, will be a reduction in average global temperatures of hundredths of a degree.

More than anything else, this scam illustrates the problems brought on our economy, and our well-being, by Congress delegating almost unlimited powers to unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies.