BrianGarst.com

Facing resistance over cap-and-trade and other initiatives, the EPA is opening up a new front in its war on economic prosperity:

The EPA wants to cut the national ambient air-quality standard to between 60 and 70 parts per billion, which would push thousands of communities over the current limit of 75 ppb. That, in turn, would make it more difficult to attract new business.

“Is this really another uncertainty you want to throw at the business community right now?” asked Ross Eisenberg, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s environment and energy counsel. “It just doesn’t make much sense.”

…Now, Mr. Eisenberg said, he is hearing the standard will be set around 65 ppb. “Anything in that range would be too low,” he said. It would even force respected national parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon out of compliance.

Communities that fail to drop within the limit will be hit with fines and forced to place restrictions on businesses. One of the biggest restrictions will be a rule that they have to tear down one or more buildings before they can build a new one.

“So you wind up scaling down,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “You’re having less business at that point. You’re taking more away than you’re adding.”

This is just Keynesian make-work by another name. Destroying buildings before you can make new ones, digging ditches for no purpose, it’s all the same: a waste of resources. But at least we’ll have plenty of “green jobs” destroying the prosperity of yesteryear and ushering in our future of sustainable, eco-friendly poverty.

EPA Keynesian