A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported how President Obama’s global-warming agenda was losing support among Democrats in the Senate, as 26 of them joined Republicans in a vote insisting that any new cap-and-trade tax on carbon energy would require at least 60 votes. However, the Journal predicted that the administration’s next step would be to impose cap-and-trade the non-democratic way, via regulation. Bingo:
So last Friday the Environmental Protection Agency decided to put a gun to the head of Congress and play cap-and-trade roulette with the U.S. economy.
The pistol comes in the form of a ruling that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant that threatens the public and therefore must be regulated under the 1970 Clean Air Act. This so-called “endangerment finding” sets the clock ticking on a vast array of taxes and regulation that EPA will have the power to impose across the economy, and all with little or no political debate.
This is a momentous decision that has the potential to affect the daily life of every American, yet most of the media barely noticed, and those that did largely applauded. When America’s Founders revolted against “taxation without representation,” this is precisely the kind of kingly diktat they had in mind.
To read the rest of this morning Wall Street Journal’s piece go here. For more, also read this good piece by Kim Strassel.