Understanding Government

There’s a problem when legislators criticize a government agency for overreaching and then overreach in response.  That seems to be the response by some members of Congress to an EPA that is, basically, doing its job.  As a New York Times editorial over the weekend makes clear, the law of the land — the Clean Air Act — is EPA’s job to uphold.  But now some members of the House of Representatives and U.S. senators are trying to chip away at EPA’s ability to regulate not just CO2, but also substances like mercury, soot, and other substances that hurt both humans and wildlife.

If you don’t like the Clean Air Act, then legislate it away — but don’t selectively stop the federal agency charged with carrying it out from doing its job.

History shows that regulatory delays have a way of becoming permanent.

The US Environmental Protection Agency put California’s own proactive regulators on notice Monday, warning that Washington might reject as insufficient the state’s compliance plans for reducing the amount of soot in the air in the Los Angeles basin and the San Joaquin Valley, reports Margot Roosevelt of the Los Angeles Times.  Roosevelt writes: (more…)