Editorial: EPA steps in where Congress fears to tread
In this file photo, exhaust rises from smokestacks in front of piles of coal at NRG Energy's W.A. Parish Electric Generating Station in Thompsons, Texas. (2011) Credit: AP
Get ready to regulate. Now that a federal appeals court in Washington has affirmed the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that six greenhouse gases endanger the health and welfare of humans, the way is clear for the agency to do what Congress has refused to do: find ways to cut emissions of the gases that are causing climate change.
The National Association of Manufacturers and others are unhappy. But this much is clear: Armed with the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA and now the unanimous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, EPA absolutely can regulate those emissions. For those who fear how EPA's unelected bureaucrats may go about that, here's a solution: Go get Congress to act and spell it all out in statute. Otherwise, it's up to EPA.
