EPA Proposes ‘Illegal’ Clean Air Rule

Washington, D.C., September 1, 2009—The Environmental
Protection Agency has sent a proposed rule to the White House that would allow
regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, but restrict the scope to only very
large industrial sources. This proposal, issued under the Clean Air Act,
violates the language of the statute and effectively amounts to the EPA usurping
the role of Congress, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“EPA is proposing an illegal rule,” said Marlo Lewis, CEI Senior Fellow.
“They are presuming – on their own authority – to amend the Clean Air Act. It
turns out that CEI was correct all along – that EPA cannot regulate carbon
dioxide without grave risks to the U.S. economy unless it plays
lawmaker and amends the Clean Air Act, which is a clear violation of the
separation of powers.”

EPA’s potentially vast role in regulating carbon dioxide
stems from
the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Massachusetts v. EPA, which held that the Clean Air Act does allow
the agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but did not – contrary to
widespread misreporting at the time – require EPA to do so.

“This move by EPA confirms CEI’s argument that Massachusetts v. EPA was incorrectly
decided. Of course, the larger constitutional crisis spawned by the Supreme
Court’s decision is that we could get an energy suppression regime far more
costly and intrusive than either the Kyoto Protocol or Waxman-Markey without
the people’s elected representatives ever voting on it.”

>>Read Marlo Lewis’ official comments on the EPA’s
endangerment proposal regarding carbon dioxide here. 

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest group that
studies the intersection of regulation, risk, and markets.