Myth: The EPA should be allowed to make nationwide regulations on things like greenhouse gasses because they are the only part of the government which can make choices in relation to protecting the environment.
Truth: Major environmental regulations issued by an agency are unconstitutional in at least two ways.
First, they are a violation of Separation of Powers. The Congress can (and has) passed laws in relation to environmental regulation by passing the proposed law as a bill and having the bill approved by the President. This is the correct means of passing a national law. Giving an executive agency the ability to make law, enforce it, and adjudicate violations is in direct contradiction to the American conception of divided government. No one section of the government is designed to have the combined powers of the other sections. Such agglomeration is patently unconstitutional.
Secondly, environmental regulations are nowhere among the enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution nor can they be justified as an implied power necessary to effecting those enumerated powers. Such regulation is therefore reserved to the authority of the states. For more information, see Federal Regulation.
