One of the most mind-boggling aspects of the EPA’s endangerment finding is that the administration is promoting a policy it actually believes to be harmful. Don’t sponsors of regulations or legislation usually claim their proposals would advance the common good? Not so here.
The Obama administration has made clear that the endangerment finding is an attempt to blackmail Congress into passing cap-and-trade. The threat is that if it doesn’t, then EPA will unleash something much worse on the economy.
It’s a wholly cynical ploy, and one that could very likely backfire on Obama. I explored this scenario in a City Journal piece earlier this week. Roger Pilon tackled the subject on NRO today. And Newt Gingrich writes in the Washington Examiner that Congress could very easily rein in EPA’s authority to regulate CO2, despite protests from cap-and-trade proponents like Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. In fact, it already did earlier this year.