WASHINGTON: Late last year, the President’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was quoted as saying “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn’t think you could do before.” The stimulus bill, a fine piece of prevarication, was passed under an imminent sense of crisis, and it is this sense of crisis that acts as a powerful conduit to ram controversial bills through the legislative process. It is a strategy that the Obama administration wields often and effectively.

But why wait for a crisis to come to you? What if a crisis could be created to serve a particular purpose? This appears to be what Democrats had in mind when the House passed H.R. 2454 The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Best known as the Cap and Trade Bill, it purports to tackle the challenge of Global Warming, or if you prefer– Climate Change. Guaranteed to have a dire economic impact upon our nation, the Cap and Trade Bill has another potential dark side, a legislatively fabricated crisis.

This is one bill that is sure to put a grin upon Rahm Emanuel’s face. On page 690, SEC. 705 REVIEW AND PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS (C)(6)(A), the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is required to report to Congress on the “increased risks to natural systems and society” that result from an “increase in global average temperature” of 2 degrees Celsius “above the pre-industrial average.” And on “an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations above 450 parts per million” of carbon dioxide.

This all seems fairly benign, just a few reports from the EPA informing Congress of the associated risks of climate change based upon two key parameters. But the bill couples this EPA requirement with a directive given to the President.

In SEC. 707. PRESIDENTIAL RESPONSE AND RECOMMENDATIONS, on page 698 it says, “The President shall direct relevant Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions identified in the reports.” The statutory authority referred to already exists within the administration’s regulatory framework and is not enlarged in this bill. But what this bill does is create a kind of crisis.

If the EPA reports to Congress that the risks associated with an increase in temperature and carbon dioxide levels above those outlined in the legislation are unacceptable, then the President is directed to take action once these limits are surpassed. It is important to note that the EPA is not independent of the President, the EPA is an executive agency and its administrator is under the authority of the President.

Today carbon dioxide levels are around 387 parts per million, and some predictions claim that carbon dioxide levels will meet or surpass the 450 parts per million limit within the next couple of years. If levels rise as predicted, and the EPA has reported to Congress that the risks are unacceptable, then the crisis scenario of SEC. 707 goes into effect and the President is then empowered to direct executive agencies to take “appropriate actions”. During the past year how many crises have occurred where the American people have heard the President say “If we do not act…” ?

STIMULUS PACKAGE: “If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.”

HEALTH CARE: “If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day. These are the consequences of inaction.”

GLOBAL WARMING: If we do not act, climate change will be “Irreversible catastrophe”.

This has been the conduit for which the Obama administration has used to pass controversial legislation. But this method of law making comes at a steep price. This is because a crisis leaves little time for debate and almost no time for compromise, thus opening up the “opportunity to do things that you didn’t think you could do before.” For if action is not taken, people will lose jobs, Americans will lose their health insurance and the planet will be irreversibly damaged.

There are a host of reasons why the Cap and Trade Bill is bad for America. But chief among these are the provisions that legislatively create a climate crises. These kinds of laws are fundamentally un-American, they have the potential to grant the President dictatorial type powers, thus subverting the protections granted to the people under the Constitution.