EDITORIAL: EPA’s chilling effect

Not-so-unintended consequences of overregulation are in the air. Newly adopted rules limiting airborne soot imposed by bureaucrats in Washington threaten to freeze the choices — and toes — of individuals living more than 4,000 miles away in subarctic Alaska. Thanks to authoritarian overreach, the freedom of America’s “last frontier” may not last much longer.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waited until after President Obama’s re-election to announce drastic new restrictions on soot produced by industry smokestacks, diesel trucks and even ordinary sources like wood-burning stoves. The new standard for the great outdoors reduces the legal limit for airborne fine-particle matter from 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 12 micrograms. To put in context how overly restrictive that is, secondhand tobacco smoke in a closed car can expose a person to 3,000-4,000 micrograms of soot per cubic meter, according to the agency.

Read more at the Washington Times

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Global warming: second thoughts of an environmentalist

Scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are quite certain: by using fossil fuels man is currently destroying the climate and our future. We have one last chance, we are told: quickly renounce modern industrial society – painfully but for a good cause.

For many years, I was an active supporter of the IPCC and its CO2 theory. Recent experience with the UN's climate panel, however, forced me to reassess my position. In February 2010, I was invited as a reviewer for the IPCC report on renewable energy. I realised that the drafting of the report was done in anything but a scientific manner.

Read more at the UK Telegraph

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EU reconsiders green laws to shore up industry

Sectors affected by the ongoing recession – including cars and the chemical industry – will be offered specific treatment under a revised industrial policy to be agreed by EU ministers today (28 May). ∴ EU ministers responsible for industry, trade and research are due to agree a new approach to industrial policy that takes greater care of key sectors such as the chemicals and automotive industries as Europe battles through its worst economic recession since the 1930s. ∴ Germany in particular reckons that all additional environmental legislation should be put on ice until economic conditions return to normal, according to one senior diplomatic source. ∴ The REACH regulation on chemicals and the extension of carbon dioxide emission limits to light duty vehicles in the automotive sector were both cited as areas where industry will be offered special treatment. ∴ The aim is to soften the impact of Europe's strict environmental rules as industries fight their way through the economic recession. Read more at EurActiv... Read More......