Donald Trump’s abrupt shift back toward an “America First” energy policy has predictably caused heads to explode as climate policies gradually give way to the free market.
Do an internet search on “Trump and endangerment finding” or “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and endangerment finding,” or some combination of the two, and a slew of faulty scientific claims will pop up compliments of green pressure groups and their allies in the media.
The Environmental Defense Fund, for example, claims that “our health and safety” and the “quality of our everyday lives” are at stake if the Trump administration prevails in its deregulatory efforts. Other notable contributions to the histrionics come from legal activists with the Center for Biological Diversity who accuse the Trump administration of exercising “malice toward the planet.”
Both outfits insist that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2009 Endangerment Finding, which identified carbon dioxide as a pollutant, proceeds from sound science when it does not. The finding came about in response to the U.S. Supreme Court 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that said the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The court ruling opened the door for President Barack Obama’s EPA to put its climate agenda on steroids.
The Endangerment Finding serves as the edifice for anti-fossil fuel measures that include limits on CO2 emissions from power plants, automobiles and trucks. The reconsideration of the Endangerment Finding that Zeldin set into motion fits into a larger package of “31 Historic Actions” designed to unleash American energy.
But what about the villainous human CO2 emissions, and the pending climate catastrophe?
In the age of Trump, well-credentialed scientists working in fields relevant to what drives warming and cooling trends are finding expression like they have never have before. A key player here is the CO2 Coalition, which includes scientists and researchers from across the globe devoted to educating the public and policymakers about the benefits of CO2. Not only is the naturally occurring substance not a pollutant, but it’s in fact the great elixir of life on Earth.
The coalition has a long and copious list of “facts and data” highlighting the benefits of CO2 that do not fit in with the narrative of centralized planners in Washington D.C.
The regulatory attack on CO2 is essentially an attack on humanity itself. Dr. William Happer, a retired Princeton University physicist and founder of the CO2 Coalition, explains why.
“Carbon dioxide is at the basis of life on Earth.” Happer said in an interview with Freedom Research. “We live because plants are able to chemically transform carbon dioxide and water into sugar and a byproduct is the oxygen that we breath, and so we should all be very grateful that we have carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
“Life would die without carbon dioxide,” he explained.
Happer and other members of the CO2 Coalition view the recent warming trend as a natural response to planet’s emergence from the Little Ice Age beginning in the 1800s. Overturning the Endangerment Finding is therefore a matter of sound science.
On the economic side, Zeldin anticipates that the regulatory reforms now underway will greatly alleviate the financial burden on U.S. families that exist in the form of hidden taxes and other costs all imposed in the name of climate change. There is yet another added benefit from a constitutional perspective.
The Endangerment Finding enabled the Obama and Biden administrations to bypass Congress while enacting their anti-fossil fuel agenda. By restoring checks and balances in policymaking areas where they have gone missing, Team Trump can help to ensure that political figures cannot impose higher costs on the public without a straight up and down vote. That’s called “No Taxation without Representation.”
Trump’s deregulatory agenda could not be more perfectly timed as it closely coincides with the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026. The American Energy Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for free market policies, lists 50 Actions the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have taken to “unleash” America’s full potential as an energy powerhouse. Overturning the Endangerment Finding is on that list. So is Trump’s decision to withdraw from the United Nations Paris Climate Accord, which empowered unelected, international government bodies with the ability to impose higher energy costs on U.S. citizens without congressional input.
AEA president Tom Pyle credits Trump for fulfilling his campaign promises to unleash America’s “vast resources” and reverse “the reckless policies of his predecessor.”
Following up on Pyle’s point, there is no better way to celebrate the anniversary of American Independence than by having Congress reclaim its legislative authority at home while resisting the machinations of anti-science climate activists abroad.
Kevin Mooney is a senior investigative researcher with Restoration News.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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