The Clean Air Act, an SUV Ban, and the Federal Register

Clean Air Act

Jonathan Strong writes in The Daily Caller that the EPA’s endangerment finding was not an “end-run” around Congress.

Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis disagrees and argues that the Clean Air Act should not be used as a political tool in a fight against global warming.

“In short, applying the Clen Air Act to greenhouse gases threatens to turn the Act into a de-industrialization mandate, a national economic suicide pact. Yet one of the statute’s core purposes, declared in the first section, is ‘to promote . . . the productive capacity of the population.’ When did Congress vote to rescind that provision?”

SUV Ban

Parisian officials are proposing a ban on SUVs in the city.

Research Associate Brian McGraw urges the Parisian city government not to make the ban law.

“The proposal, still in its infancy, lacks important details but nonetheless appears to be a senseless attack on politically unpopular vehicles that will have an insignificant effect on congestion or the environment. France is known for having high fuel taxes, but an outright ban seems to be unprecedented.”

Federal Register

The 2010 Federal Register is the third-largest ever.

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young asks what the high page count means.

“The next few years will tell us a lot. 2010’s high page count may have been a combination of this year’s ambitious legislation plus a midnight rush to get the White House’s regulatory wish list in place before the other team can block it. Or, as in the past, it could be that we have reached a new, permanent plateau of frenzied federal activity. I’m hoping for the former. But the Republicans in Congress are no friends of limited government, so one never knows. They will reliably oppose anything the other team comes up with. But as the Bush years showed, they’ll also vote for the exact same policies so long as it’s their team that’s proposing them. This is not a recipe for fiscal or regulatory health.”