That was my reaction also: WHO WROTE THE LAW LETTING THE EPA DO THIS? It's not like we've got the Roman Senate under Nero...
or maybe we do, which is even scarier
These laws are broadly written to allow the EPA to decide what’s pollution and then regulate it. That’s a huge problem. It’s bad enough that Congress has created the regulatory state, but Congress didn’t craft the laws tight enough to keep these abuses from happening.
As far as I recall, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 (Massachusetts v. EPA) that CO2 can be regulated as a pollutant. The law gives the EPA wide discretion on how to regulate pollutants. Once C02 was declared a pollutant, the door to regulatory malfeasance was thrown wide.
Congress probably thought the executive branch wouldn’t take advantage of such discretion—bad move! They obviously didn’t count on someone like Obama at the helm. Like it or not, he’s generally walking a thin legal line on his executive orders, too.