Senator Graham Puts on Airs

A little bit ago, Lindsey Graham co-wrote a Wall Street Journal Op/Ed with the esteemed Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, advocating for Cap and Trade legislation. We wrote about that Op/Ed here.

Yesterday, Senator Graham defended himself in an interview on the Sean Hannity radio program. In essence, he said the EPA was already empowered to regulate CO2 emissions, and it was important therefore to pass legislation insuring that such regulation would not burden small businesses and consumers with costs that would stifle economic activity and growth. He then concluded his defense, saying that he did not know to what extent Global Warming was a true man-made cataclysm, but that CO2 emissions by cars and other polluters was certainly not good and we needed to move as fast as possible to energy sources other than fossil fuels.

He talks as if the EPA is some natural, unstoppable force in the world, instead of a bureaucracy which owes its continuing existence to Congress. Why not legislate it out of existence, or if he is not willing to do that, curtail its jurisdiction over CO2? Because Senator Graham's real rationale for joining with Democrats on Cap and Trade is what he concluded with: CO2 is a pollutant, and pollutants are bad.

But, Mr. Graham, CO2 is not a pollutant. Another word for CO2 is "air." Air is not bad; unless it is hot air, in which case it can be very damaging to the political health of this Country.

Let the record show that I am in favor of eliminating all sources of hot air, including, perhaps especially including, Senators Graham and Kerry.