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Call to Action: EPA Power Grab

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By Diana Hsieh from NoodleFood,cross-posted by MetaBlog

The following call to action is from John Lewis and Paul Saunders. I strongly urge you to speak out about this attempted power grab by the EPA. Your life, health, and freedom depend on it.

This is a CALL TO ACTION.

In July the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which details their plan to force Americans to reduce emissions of CO2 and other so-called "greenhouse gases." This follows on an Executive Order signed by President Bush, which was made possible by a U.S. Supreme Court decisions ruling that CO2 is a "pollutant." (!)

This plan will strip the American people of their freedom, and place them under the control of a single, all-powerful, federal agency. Industrial permits, furnace regulations, auto emissions testing, building permits, transportation, and food production--all will fall under the boot of the EPA. Environmentalists will use lawsuits to pressure the EPA to tighten an ever-shrinking noose around the neck of every American.

The EPA invites public comment--until November 11, 2008. That is the deadline for opposing this horrific, tyrannical plan.

We have prepared a cover letter, and a set of comments, that provide our reasons for categorically rejecting this plan. These documents are available on my website:

www.classicalideals.com/EPA_Ruination.htm

Scroll down for Word documents of the cover letter, and the comments (33 pages). We also offer excerpts from the EPA document, and a sample letter to the EPA, along with instructions for writing.

Read this, and act! Please spread the word. Send this website far and wide, put it on the blogosphere, copy it in whole or in part, and write a letter!

Dr. John David Lewis

Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science, Duke University

Author, Solon the Thinker and Early Greek Lawgivers

www.classicalideals.com

esse quam videri

Please, please, please submit a public comment before the November 11th deadline -- and spread the word about this dangerous expansion of government power.388554665

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/archives/004028.html

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I wrote my letter:

To The Honorable Stephen L. Johnson

Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Ariel Rios Building

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20460

Subject: Comments to the Environmental Protection Agency

Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act

Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0318

To the Administrator of the EPA:

Living in Britain, I am all too aware of the trend in the political, cultural and philosophical realms that, 'If America's got it, we've got to have it too'. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking lays out rules dictating that the by-product of carbon dioxide (CO2) must be limited by law. This means throttling industry, as the most direct and efficient means of lowering carbon emissions. If this is enacted, I will soon be seeing the same anti-life legislation enacted in my own country.

I may not be American, but this legislation is as life threatening for me as it is for any American. My life depends on the importation of goods from many countries, including America; the production of and transportation of such goods results in the emission of such gases as have been labeled 'pollutants' by official decree of the United States. If the ANPR is followed through in any part, it will mean that this island I live on will begin down a path of starvation and deprivation, caused by your proposed guidelines for living, which I label a proscribed method for dying.

I do not wish to see the country I live in - England - nor the country I love - America - destroyed by the immutable whim and rule of the EPA. I urge you not to take these steps and I inform you that I, and any citizen of any country in the world who believes that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights guaranteed by birth and not favours granted by government, will oppose any such action taken by the EPA.

Sincerely,

Rory Hodgson

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I posted to the "Climate Audit" forum too. They already had a thread about it, but I provided a link to the Lewis web-page, to make it easier for people to react. If anyone knows of any other forums that could be sympathetic to this issue, please take the time to react. Given that both candidates for President are in favor of some rules, only public opinion can keep things in check.

My letter:

I oppose the enactment of the rules outlined in this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR).

These rules:

  • will stifle the pursuit of happiness of me and my fellow citizens. are contrary to human life itself.
  • will increase government control, contrary to the principles of individual right
  • are based on scare tactics rather than scientific fact
  • will be one more blow to American standard of living
  • will make us curtail are lifetime for a feel-good illusion

And one from my wife:

I oppose the enactment of the rules outlined in this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR).

I immigrated to America so that my child an I could enjoy the freedoms offered, and pursue our happiness. Now, I find that the government is increasingly curtailing that freedom and that pursuit. To placate the irrational fears of some citizens, I am being asked to take a step backward in human progress. These rules are one more blow to my rights and my values.

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This measure has huge implications. CO2 emissions is indirectly tied to all US energy consumption. EPA will have the power to unwittingly change US energy policy via regulation of it's output. By labeling CO2 a pollutant, technically ALL energy consumption entails "pollution".

My letter will be in before the weekend's out.

Please if you have not been an activist for ideas before, consider at least writing a letter on this issue.

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I sent in a brief letter of my own and encouraged another Objectivist I know to do so. Let's hope it makes some impression. The only protection we have any more from the many would-be dictators is that they're afraid to exercise their power.

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'If America's got it, we've got to have it too'.

Really, does that excuse go both ways here and abroad? Because the excuse here is often that other countries are so much better politically and so we should be like them. For example people on the left tell us we should have socialized health care like Canada and the U.K. Or we should implement environmental laws like Japan etc.

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Well you know, it's what musenji said in another thread that made me start writing letters like this and getting involved: it takes less effort to write a simple letter in support or in disagreement with something, than it does to post in a thread about why you're not going to write said letter.

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I have the full document, 73 Fed. Reg. 44354-01 (Jul. 30, 2008), in all its 113-page glory sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to get a chance to read it.

If anyone needs additional evidence of the Administrative State, they should look at that citation. This "Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" begins on Page 44,354 of volume 73 of the Federal Register. The Federal Register is a daily publication of executive orders (a tiny portion), administrative rules and regulations changing or going into effect, and proposed rules. Each volume spans one year. So this year, law and proposed law generated by the administrative agencies spanned over 44,000 pages by the end of July. In fact, administrative agencies in the US are responsible for promulgating more positive law in one day than Congress does during a whole year.

And it's all in weensy-print.

~Q

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Here we go. :(

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/19/hea...ience/19epa.php

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States' negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

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