A historic shift on CO2

The Environmental Protection Agency has declared for the first time that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases endanger human health, opening the door to potentially sweeping climate-change rules that could cost businesses and consumers billions. The so-called endangerment finding came in response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that ordered the EPA to determine whether CO2 posed a threat. Government efforts to limit emissions of the gases could affect nearly every part of Americans’ lives, from the cars they drive to how they cook.

Because new rules could take years to implement, congressional Democrats said they would push legislation aimed at dramatically reducing emissions in the near future. Reps. Edward Markey and Henry Waxman have proposed a complex set of regulations for limiting emissions from factories and cars. The Obama administration has also said that it may use powers the EPA already has under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases.

“The EPA’s step toward facing facts is overdue but welcome,” said The Austin American-Statesman in an editorial. Ultimately, the agency’s ruling will raise the price of energy, but prices have never reflected the true environmental cost of burning fossil fuels. Now it’s up to Congress to produce a bill that reflects a broad national consensus on climate change. That’s far better “than to have unelected regulators set the rules on this critical change to U.S. environmental policy.”

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Even if you think radical action is needed to fight global warming, this finding should trouble you, said Jonah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times. Since virtually everything humans do produces carbon dioxide, the EPA’s action amounts to an executive-branch “power grab over all that burns, breathes, burps, flies, drives, and passes gas.” The agency doesn’t even have to issue new regulations—the mere threat of them will force Congress to pass a bill to the EPA’s liking. That’s extortion, not democracy.

Although business groups warn that greenhouse-gas limits would be a costly burden, the EPA’s ruling could actually help the economy recover, said Ryan Avent in Portfolio.com. New automobile-emissions rules would encourage Americans to scrap their dirty old cars and “invest in cleaner machines,” triggering a burst of economic activity. “It’s regulation as stimulus.”