{"id":2859,"date":"2023-04-14T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T21:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2023-04-14T16:17:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T21:17:13","slug":"epas-latest-act-of-soft-despotism-against-the-american-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2859","title":{"rendered":"EPA\u2019s Latest Act of Soft Despotism Against the American People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20770%20400'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-1024x532.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-2860\" width=\"770\" height=\"400\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-1024x532.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2860\" width=\"770\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-1024x532.png 1024w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-770x400.png 770w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-293x152.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84-390x203.png 390w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-84.png 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2013\/02\/28\/environmental-protection-agency-no-room-for-sequestration-cuts\/\">Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>&nbsp;is using&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/03\/08\/the-biden-administrations-shocking-scientific-abuses-at-epa\/\">shaky science<\/a>&nbsp;to tighten regulations on ambient levels of tiny particulate matter in the air\u2014from dust to fireplace smoke to car exhaust\u2014in other words, essential byproducts of industrial activity and daily life. If the final rule, which is expected in the coming months, is anything like the proposed rule, the EPA will continue to give itself increasing authority to regulate more of American life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in \u201cDemocracy in America\u201d about a soft despotism in which the ruling class covers society with a network of complicated rules until the people become \u201ca flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem today may be worse than what Tocqueville saw\u2014the EPA is abusing our timidity, and it may not even allow us to be industrious anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2021\/12\/17\/bidens-many-anti-energy-policies-are-hurting-producers-consumers-alike\/\">federal rules<\/a>&nbsp;keep getting stricter and more complicated, it\u2019s easy to see the wisdom\u2014and the warning\u2014in Tocqueville\u2019s work. From climate alarmism to emergency injections for COVID-19, we\u2019re told that government leaders know best and that we should trust \u201cThe Science.\u201d The EPA is taking the same approach with its proposal to tighten regulations on the levels of fine particulate matter in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stakes are high. This time, if we give in to the \u201ctrust The Science\u201d crowd, we risk handing over the master key that will allow the EPA to overregulate just about everything we do. Under the proposed rule, states would have to do what the EPA says or risk losing their highway funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means regulators would control mundane things like whether you can burn wood in your fireplace without industrial-grade technology to filter the exhaust. Driving a car might come under intense scrutiny not only for directly emitting particulate matter from the exhaust but for kicking up too much \u201cfugitive dust,\u201d as the EPA puts it, from dirt roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Further, other rules covering completely different substances like mercury from coal-fired power plants could be justified using merely the assumed health benefits of reducing particulate matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a crucial side effect of the rule because the largest electricity market in the country is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/americaspower.org\/pjm-chief-retirements-need-to-slow-down-he-means-coal\/\">pleading<\/a>&nbsp;with the EPA to slow down the retirement of coal-fired power plants\u2014too many retirements at too fast a pace will almost certainly cause strained conditions on the power grid and contribute to widespread blackouts during winter storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to EPA scientists, fine particulate matter kills thousands of Americans each year. Owing its name to the tiny particle size of about 2.5 microns (about 1\/30<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;of the width of a human hair), PM2.5 (for \u201cparticulate matter 2.5\u201d) is not only deadly to inhale at high concentrations, but\u2014and this is significant\u2014EPA makes the unfounded leap to say it is still deadly at concentrations approaching zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, the EPA thinks any amount of it might kill you. Some call this a \u201clinear, no safe threshold\u201d relationship between the concentration of a pollutant and the negative health reactions. Keep in mind we\u2019re talking about something commonplace, including smoke from natural wood fires and dust from driving on dirt roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Never mind that the EPA didn\u2019t regulate PM2.5 before 1997 and has already tightened the standard from a concentration of 15 micrograms per cubic meter to 12. Also leave aside for a moment that America\u2019s PM2.5 standards are nearly twice as strict as those in Europe and that PM2.5 exposures in Chinese cities consistently reach three to ten times the U.S. standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may not even know what PM2.5 is\u2014and in fact EPA doesn\u2019t analyze the chemical makeup of PM2.5\u2014but they\u2019re sure it\u2019s killing you, even at low doses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The push to clean up our air at all costs may have made sense in the notoriously smoggy cities of the early 1970s. But where do we draw the line now? At what point can we say tighter standards no longer make sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the EPA\u2019s own public health logic\u2014that there\u2019s no safe threshold for PM2.5\u2014it would never make sense to stop regulating it, and the standard should be zero. Indeed, if the scientists truly believe the no-threshold theory, that\u2019s what the official EPA review of the health science of PM2.5 would say to do (these are called&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/isa\/integrated-science-assessment-isa-particulate-matter\">integrated science assessments<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, the assessments talk (as real scientists do) about the uncertainty of negative health impacts at very low concentrations of PM2.5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whenever the EPA wants to slow industrial activity or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/10\/05\/bidens-energy-crisis\/\">punish fossil fuels<\/a>, it can go back and tighten PM2.5 standards. Then it can rinse and repeat until the standard reaches zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even if a new regulation has nothing to do with PM2.5, citing \u201cco-benefits\u201d of reducing PM2.5 could help justify whatever EPA wants a regulation to do. The \u201cno threshold\u201d theory is a blank check for new, stricter regulations whenever the administration feels like it. Such regulations could cover tighter rules on power plants, automobiles, or just about any industrial process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In administrative parlance, this is an \u201carbitrary and capricious\u201d dynamic that gives the agency too much leeway to act on a whim instead of on scientific evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s a modest proposal: bring back economic logic. Restore&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2018\/03\/27\/epa-chief-puts-science-back-environmental-protection\/\">sound science<\/a>&nbsp;by holding the EPA to a higher standard of proof for the damage it claims. Reduce&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2023\/03\/30\/house-passes-h-r-1-first-step-bring-energy-costs-congressman-says\/\">regulatory burdens<\/a>&nbsp;across the board by limiting the EPA\u2019s use of alleged PM2.5 benefits in unrelated rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that the smoggy 1970s are behind us, let\u2019s take a fresh look at the Clean Air Act to make sure the EPA is truly protecting public health in a way that serves Americans, not just pretending to protect us while regulating us back to the stone age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2023\/04\/14\/epa-uses-shaky-science-to-snag-new-powers-to-regulate-you-more\/\">https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2023\/04\/14\/epa-uses-shaky-science-to-snag-new-powers-to-regulate-you-more\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency&nbsp;is using&nbsp;shaky science&nbsp;to tighten regulations on ambient levels of tiny particulate matter in the air\u2014from dust to fireplace smoke to car exhaust\u2014in other words, essential byproducts of industrial activity and daily life. If the final rule, which is expected in the coming months, is anything like the proposed rule, the EPA will continue to give itself increasing authority to regulate more of American life. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in \u201cDemocracy in America\u201d about a soft despotism in which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-threat-to-america"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}