Kevin Hassett has a good column over at Bloomberg.com which points out how the Department of Interior's most recent decision to place the polar bear on the endangered species list. Now while such a decision will be donned a noble gesture towards this great beast of the north(Even if the 25,000 bears live in the wilds of Canada) by the American public and the bureaucrats under the helm of Secretary Kempthorne, Hassett points out that such a move will only open the door to future lawsuits from the "green lobby" who will claim that the decline of the polar bear's environmental is caused by the output of massive quantities of CO2 from countless industries, activities, and autos by humans in this country. I have to say Hasset lays this argument out well when he noted the following:
Attorney and columnist Hugh Hewitt described what that new world will look like: ``Environmental activists will argue that all emissions of greenhouse gases that flow as a consequence of the grant of a federal permit of any sort are now subject to review under the ESA and, crucially, that those permits cannot be issued unless and until the United States Fish & Wildlife Service reviews and approves of the requested permit.''
The fact is, just about everything requires some kind of permit, so just about anything that emits greenhouse gases could be subject to a challenge. The process will rapidly spread the reach of this ruling throughout the energy industry and U.S. manufacturing.
An activist armed with a lawyer can now halt anything he wants. He might even be able to stop you from driving to work or taking a hot shower.
If you consider the chaos that is about to ensue, there really is only one logical solution. Congress needs to act immediately to adopt either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system that meaningfully addresses climate change. And while it does, it must revise the Endangered Species Act to acknowledge the fact that global warming is being addressed by this new policy.
It is only a matter of time until the legal chaos ignited by this ruling makes that truth clear to everyone.
This just goes to show you that when a cabinet level department of the executive branch issues out edicts and rules for the truest of intentions they open up a Pandora's box to the environmental zealots who play their games in the courts of the unelected few. No matter how you look at it, the safest bet for this nation is for folks to think before the push forward decisions that will have detrimental repercussions on us for decades to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment