Comments from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) Submitted to EPA Regarding the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act

A final caveat seems appropriate. Welfare-related “effects” on weather and climate do not in themselves constitute endangerment. The Court majority in Massachusetts made this rudimentary error. The majority stated, “Under the clear terms of the Clean Air Act, EPA can avoid taking further action only if it determines that greenhouse emissions do not contribute to climate change...” They implied that any amount of global warming, regardless of its rate, magnitude, or actual impacts, endangers public health and welfare.

That opinion prejudges the endangerment issue and flouts common sense. Consider that millions of Americans voluntarily experience a greater degree of climate change just by moving, for example, from Buffalo or Chicago to Tampa or Phoenix than any particular U.S. locale will likely experience in 100 years. Consider also that sea levels have increased by about a foot since the mid-19th century. Yet something else increased much faster—population, development, and property values in U.S. coastal communities. Climate change per se is not endangerment.

Finally, recall that Northern Hemisphere temperatures were significantly warmer than they are today during a period lasting from about 4,000 to 11,000 years ago.158 Traditional climate historians called that period the Holocene “optimum,” believing it to have been the best climate for human civilization.