Instead of “blackmailing” Congress, President Obama is “greenmailing” Congress by forcing them to comply with his order that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulate greenhouse gasses. But Congress—an institution not known to give up power without a fight—has yielded to the president prematurely. In fact, already Congress has enacted legislation that limits the regulatory power of the EPA. Last summer, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, (R-Kansas) passed an amendment to the EPA appropriations bill establishing that “none of the funds made available in this Act or any other Act may be used to promulgate or implement any regulation requiring the issuance of permits under Title V of the Clean Air Act … for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, water vapor, or methane emissions resulting from biological processes associated with livestock production.”
In other words, standing law already prohibits the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases naturally produced by livestock, and thus by extension, acts as proof that the legislative body maintains influence over the delegation of regulatory power to the EPA. Read more in my Washington Examiner column today.
Members of Congress should not so easily capitulate to the unilateral actions of the president—especially when it comes to enacting reforms that could have such a dramatic affect on our nation’s economy.