EPA Finds Global Warming Dangerous, Proposes to Micromanage the Economy

Nicolas Loris /

Bureaucratic micromanagement of the economy, all in the name of fighting global warming, would likely be the end result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) endangerment finding on greenhouse gases. The White House Office of Management and Budget completed its interagency review of the EPA’s proposed finding, and it is now a matter of time (tomorrow or next week) before the endangerment finding is officially released. In essence, the endangerment finding says that global warming and climate change pose a serious threat to public health and safety and thus almost anything that emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

The endangerment finding is the first step in a long regulatory process that could lead to EPA requiring different regulations and units of emissions requirements for each gadget that emits carbon dioxide. The first target would be automobiles, but the EPA’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) suggested regulations of almost everything that moves, including new regulations smaller items such lawnmowers and forklifts. The ANPR also suggests putting speed limiters on large trucks on the table as a means of reducing carbon dioxide and even suggested sharkskin boats oozing bubbles to reduce emissions from the shipping industry. You can’t make this stuff up. EPA states that

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