Breathe Deep, America. Carbon Dioxide Is Good For You!

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The bozos in Assington, DC masquerading as the federal government are total prisoners of the fossil fuel industry. Take a look behind the curtain at any of their cockamamie proposals and almost all of them involve removing restrictions on oil, gas, and coal, and increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Energy secretary Chris Wright is telling African leaders that burning coal is good for them because it worked well for America 100 years ago. Enough energy from the sun strikes the Earth every day to power all human needs, but instead of taking advantage of that free energy,which will last for billion of years, it is better to consume the limited amount of fossil fuels that took tens of millions of years to create.

Here’s the argument in a nutshell. Carbon dioxide is essential to photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight to convert it into the components they need to grow. Therefore, the more carbon dioxide there is, the better, right? Any sixth grader could explain why that analysis is faulty. Water is essential to life as well, but too much of it can be fatal, as the passengers aboard the Titanic discovered to their dismay on April 14, 1912.

Carbon Dioxide & The Endangerment Rule

A little history is necessary here. At the beginning of this century, there was great debate about whether the Environmental Protection Agency had the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. In 2007, the US Supreme Court, in the case of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, decided that “greenhouse gases fit well within the Act’s capacious definition of “air pollutant” and that EPA therefore had statutory authority to regulate GHG emissions from new motor vehicles. That finding lead to what is known at the “endangerment finding” by the agency in 2009. That finding is the basis for all greenhouse gas regulations since that time. The finding concluded that the buildup of six key greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride — in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare.

On March 12, 2025, current EPA administrator Lee Zeldin proudly announced 31 separate actions to roll back restrictions on air and water pollution, hand over more authority to states (but not California to regulate auto emissions within its borders), and relinquish EPA’s mandate to act on climate change under the Clean Air Act. “These announcements represent the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States,” the EPA said in a press releases. Zeldin said the moves would lower the cost of living, create jobs, and revitalize the economy. In a video posted on the social media site X, Zeldin exulted over the plan to rescind the endangerment finding.

“I’ve been told the endangerment finding is considered the holy grail of the climate change religion,” said Zeldin, a former Congressman and Army intelligence officer. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed, no exceptions. Today, the green new scam ends.” But environmental advocates voiced determination to fight back against an onslaught. They warned it would harm public health and set back the nation’s standard of living. “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin today announced plans for the greatest increase in pollution in decades,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of Environmental Defense Fund. “The result will be more toxic chemicals, more cancers, more asthma attacks and more dangers for pregnant women and their children. Rather than helping our economy, it will create chaos.”

The Environmental Destruction Agency

According to Inside Climate News, Zeldin’s announcements mark the start of a dismantling process that could take months or even years. To undo regulations that go back decades, EPA staff would have to write proposals, gather public comments, and possibly hold hearings and create a scientific and legal record justifying any decision. The latter will be needed to defend against inevitable lawsuits by environmentalists and states. All of this will have to be carried out by an agency that is severely hobbled by firings and plans to slash its funding to the lowest levels in its 55-year history.

In a post on Bluesky, John Walke, clean air director and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the sheer size of Zeldin’s effort may cause it to collapse on itself. “The same limited #s of EPA air office staff & attorneys work on many of these rules, Some have quit, some have been fired, more will be fired. EPA won’t have adequate resources to write defensible rollbacks.” The NRDC prevailed in several lawsuits against the regulatory rollbacks of the first Trump administration — in some cases, because it had not followed the long-standing law for public notice and comment of both regulatory and deregulatory actions.

Zeldin indicated he is well aware of this potential pitfall. “The agency cannot prejudge the outcome of this reconsideration or of any future rule making,” he said. “EPA will follow the Administrative Procedure Act and Clean Air Act, as applicable, in a transparent way for the betterment of the American people and the fulfillment of the rule of law.” He also pointed to recent Supreme Court rulings limiting federal agency authority as reasons why he expects the court to back his plan. The Supreme Court recently has articulated a relatively new doctrine which says that on issues of major economic consequence, regulatory agencies cannot act without explicit instructions from Congress. Readers should be aware that the 2007 Supreme Court decision that led to the “endangerment rule” was a 5 to 4 decision. The court as currently constituted does not feel constrained by precedent the way courts in the past have. In fact, it seems to revel in the idea that the law is what those nine justices say it is at any particular point and that prior court rulings can be ignored with impunity. While loudly decrying “activist judges,” it has been the most activist and partisan court in American history. Perhaps we will soon see a reprise of the famous Dred Scott decision as the court rushes to return America to the good old days.

Deregulation At All Costs

In addition to reconsidering the 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gas emissions, the EPA is preparing to rescind all regulations that flow from that decision, including those adopted under President Joe Biden to restrict greenhouse gas pollution from power plants and from cars and trucks. Zeldin has also proposed ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, the 15-year-old effort that seeks to identify where greenhouse gas emissions are being produced and the nation’s progress in reducing them. That program has been highly successful. The larger power plants required to report their emissions under the EPA program have reduced their carbon dioxide pollution by 7% relative to smaller plants that were not subject to reporting. That’s according to a report published in 2021 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But Zeldin, in a full-throated defense of MAGA theology, called the reporting program “another example of a bureaucratic government program that does not improve air quality. Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing millions of dollars, hurting small businesses and the ability to achieve the American Dream.” If you thought the American Dream involved being able to live in a clean and safe environment, you are a hopeless romantic or worse. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with profits, even if it means more people will get sick and die. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, so stop your whining and go shopping! We’re gonna make America great again if it kills us! [Which it very well might.]

In response to Zeldin’s full frontal assault on environmental protections, Jason Walsh, the executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, said in an email to CleanTechnica, “With this announcement, Lee Zeldin is driving a dagger into the hearts of workers and the American economy. Smart regulations create a triple win for workers, communities, and the environment while driving the private sector to be more innovative and competitive. These deregulations will severely harm, not help, everyday Americans. Low income, rural, and fence line communities, as well as communities of color, will bear the brunt of this attack on EPA’s core mission. Civil servants that keep our air and water clean are losing their jobs because Donald Trump cares for nobody but himself and his billionaire buddies. This administration has become a meal ticket for the rich to line their pockets, strip critical programs from vulnerable communities, and leave a legacy of corruption and broken promises.” To which we say, “Amen.”