The Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are poised to dump additional regulations on American businesses. Fox News reports that next year businesses could be forced to obtain permits to release greenhouse gases. True to form, when the Democrats can’t get Congress to pass a law they will attempt to go around the proper channels and regulate directly. (Example: The FCC and Net Neutrality; Obamacare and end-of-life plans)
In the Fox article environmental scientist Ken Green of the American Enterprise Institute has stated: “They are job killers. Regulations, period — any kind of regulation is a weight on economy. It requires people to comply with the law, which takes work hours and time, which reduces the profitability of firms. Therefore, they grow more slowly and you create less jobs”.
The EPA and the White claim that they get the authority from a Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. EPA (2007). In that case the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA can regulate greenhouse emission from automobiles if it finds that greenhouse gasses are determined to be detrimental to the environment. First, the case specifically addresses emissions from AUTOMOBILES, not whole businesses. Second there is no scientific consensus that human emissions of CO2 are warming the planet. Just to be safe, I invite all those really concerned about CO2 to begin holding their breath. They can start helping us all out by discontinuing expelling CO2 from their lungs.
I am no expert in tax law or managing a business, but I get the feeling that the environment for business right now is downright punitive. The capital gains tax is high and would be higher if Obama had his way. And there are a magnitude of mandates the businesses have to comply with that make them less efficient and profitable. Now we are looking at taxing companies for a emitting a gas that we exhale every time we breathe.