The Metastasizing of The Regulatory State
By Mark Fernwood, a member of the Contra Costa Republican Party and a Danville resident.
Federal regulatory agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, were given the power to self-modify their regulations with the intent to more effectively accomplish their the goals of the Congress that created the act. This ability ends up substantially increasing power in ways that Congress never intended or approved. All that federal agencies have to do is publish their proposed changes in a public document called the “Federal Register.” Unless there is great public outcry, it becomes law.
In California we have numerous regional governments in the Bay Area. They have no direct relationship to the voters yet they impose great regulatory power and some even have taxation authority.
What do environmental regulating agencies, like the ARB (Air Resources Board), do when we already have very clean air and clean water? Do they declare victory and largely disband, giving up their jobs? Instead, they intensify their efforts chasing the number “0”. In reality, “0” ‘pollutants’ is impossible to achieve, also chasing “0” is also infinitely expensive. The EPA also embraced this madness by classifying CO2 as a pollutant. There are two gasses that are essential for life on Earth: oxygen and carbon dioxide. Without CO2, there would be no plants; and without plants there would be no animals.
A bizarre example of regulatory expansion is the EPA ruling, backed by a Supreme Court decision, that CO2 is a pollutant. Of the many gases on earth two are essential for life: oxygen for animal life and CO2 for plant life. With out plant life there will, be no animals or plant life.
Few know that the percentage of our atmosphere CO2 occupies is only .04%. (Google percent of CO2 in air.) CO2 is actually, a rare trace gas. It is also known by science that CO2 is NOT the most significant green house gas, this is actually water vapor. We know that since industrialization, CO2 has only increased from .03% to .04%. Ice cores and other studies have shown that CO2 in very ancient times was as much as 1000 times greater, and apparently, the earth survived.
Visualizing the growth of federal regulation since 1950 - YouTube 2 ½ min