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worthwhile read..
Posted on 12/30/2007 1:31:55 PM PST by Graybeard58
It is common practice in Congress to twist the constitutional commerce clause into pretzel-shaped arguments well outside the imaginings of the framers. But such twisting works both ways. Now environmentalists are trying to pretend there's a gaping hole in the Constitution where the commerce clause used to be.
California, Connecticut and 15 other states sought to override the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to require tougher emissions standards for automakers. The EPA under President Bush has refused to allow it.
Establishing and enforcing emissions standards are obviously federal functions. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states in part: "The Congress shall have Power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian tribes ..." Newly manufactured cars and trucks fall under this clause because they're built and sold in U.S. states and foreign countries.
Writing on The New York Times' letters page Dec. 22, Christine R. Fry of San Francisco ably articulates the mentality of the environmental left. She quotes an Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers spokesman as saying, "A patchwork quilt of inconsistent and competing fuel-economy programs at the state level would only have created confusion, inefficiency and uncertainty for automakers and consumers."
Her retort: "I'm a lot more concerned about the 'confusion' and 'uncertainty' that will be caused by drought, rising sea levels and other adverse effects of global warming ..."
And the Constitution? The subject never comes up, even though people who share Ms. Fry's beliefs have ample constitutional means, ranging from free-speech and voting rights to the amendment process, to bring Congress, the EPA and the automakers around to their way of thinking.
One can imagine clever humankind finding ways to adapt to changes in the climate and remaining essentially human, but an America that willfully ignores the plain meaning of the Constitution will no longer be America, regardless of the state of the climate.
ing to a Republican-American Editorial.
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Ping.
Translation: I don't care if it makes sense! Just do something before we all die!!!!
Subtext translation: Don't argue with me. I'm always right and I don't like people who don't do what I tell them to!
a) The Congress will have power to set and collect taxes, duties, and tariffs, to pay debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. All of these things will be the same throughout the United States.
b) Congress can borrow money on the credit of the United States, regulate commerce with foreign nations, establish laws on bankruptcy, provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the currency of the United States, establish Post Offices, give out copyrights and patents, make tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, define and punish piracies and felonies committed at sea, and offenses against the Law of Nations, declare war and capture land and sea, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a Navy, make rules for the governing and regulation of the land and naval forces, have exclusive legislature over any and all lands owned by the government (including a district for the seat of the government not to exceed ten miles square), make laws that will be necessary for carrying out all of these powers.
I don’t see anything about emissions standards there. It seems to me that the Ninth and Tenth Amendments would apply.
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Indeed it was; thank you!
~~Anthropogenic Global Warming ™ ping~~
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