The EPA’s Climate Overreach

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must determine whether carbon dioxide qualified as a dangerous air pollutant. Two years later, the EPA declared that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, endangered public health, and so required regulation. This became known as the Endangerment Finding. 

Under the Finding, the Biden administration issued rules requiring about two-thirds of new cars and trucks to be electric by 2032. “The estimated costs of the rules surpassed $1 trillion, making them among the most expensive regulatory actions in history,” Judge Glock writes. “And because the government also offered separate subsidies for electric vehicle purchases, the regulations stood to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit.” 

The Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the Endangerment Finding is welcome news, Glock argues, writing that it “will put a stop to regulations that swelled the deficit, raised prices, and hurt consumers.”

Didarul Islam, Aland Etienne, Wesley LePatner, and Julia Hyman were all killed last week in the shooting at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan. “These four souls came from different countries, faiths, ethnicities, and educational backgrounds. New York brought them together to share their talents with their city and the wider world,” John Ketcham writes. “Each worked toward the same goals: to make the most of their lives, to launch their careers upward, and to provide for their loved ones.” 

Read Ketcham’s moving remembrance, and more about the victims, here.

Former New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz was a star journalist of the woke era. “Politically, she was reliably left-wing,” Christopher F. Rufo writes, as she “supported extreme coronavirus lockdowns, engaged in cancellation campaigns, and boosted the most radical ideas of the Black Lives Matter moment.” 

He sat down with her to discuss President Trump, Luigi Mangione, and the politics of violence. “Lorenz was careful not to endorse violence explicitly,” Rufo writes, “but she, like many others, seems fascinated with the darker side of politics.” 

You can read their conversation here.

With nearly 200,000 daily riders, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system connects Oakland, San Francisco, and other nearby cities. When it debuted in 1972, its cutting-edge innovations in train control and signaling were meant to serve as a model for other transit systems.  

But beginning next year, BART will face annual deficits of $400 million—certainly not something for other cities to emulate. “With more than $3 billion in outstanding debt and a recent credit rating downgrade, borrowing isn’t a viable option,” Jay Donde writes.  

Read about how it all went wrong, and how lawmakers are trying to head off the calamity.  

Photo credit: Brandon Bell / Staff / Getty Images News via Getty Images North America