Hot on the heels of the ClimateGate scandal, the EPA has made a life-changing idiotic discovery: air can kill you!!!

This is supposedly because of carbon dioxide, which naturally occurs as a major element in our atmosphere and makes plants grow. Go figure that one out.

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people’s health and must be regulated, signaling that the Obama administration is prepared to contain global warming without congressional action if necessary. …

Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases released from power plants, factories and automobiles under the federal Clean Air Act.

The EPA signaled last April that it was inclined to view heat-trapping pollution as a threat to public health and welfare and began to take public comments under a formal rulemaking. The action marked a reversal from the Bush administration, which had declined to aggressively pursue the issue.

Business groups have strongly argued against tackling global warming through the regulatory process of the Clean Air Act. Any such regulations are likely to spawn lawsuits and lengthy legal fights.

This is really just an excuse to increase regulations on businesses the EPA and the government don’t like. If carbon dioxide is “lethal”, then the EPA now has the power to let their bureaucrats get their grubby fingers into any industry they deem “dangerous” because it emits what they think is too much carbon dioxide. With our economy in such fragile shape, how can we afford to let the EPA start regulating businesses in any industry they please?

Considering what’s just happened with the ClimateGate scandal, too, this really is just shameless. And when you consider that this has the backing of the Obama administration, you really have to wonder. Is he willing to be kicked out of office in 2012 if it means that he’ll be able to pass all of the awful legislation he wants? If he keeps it up, then he’ll completely destroy any chance he has of getting reelected. But then, he’ll have accomplished everything, as long as he can force it all through before 2010 — multiple stimulus packages, government run health care, amnesty, cap and trade — and then his work will be done. Is he just a stooge for the liberal extremists?

Hat Tip: Hot Air