In 1934, former president Herbert Hoover wrote a book titled, The Challenge to Liberty. Therein, he wrote, “Liberty is a thing of the spirit-to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear-free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice. Liberty conceives that the mind and spirit of men can be free only if the individual is free to choose his own calling, to develop his talents, to win and keep a home sacred from intrusion, to rear children in ordered security.”
Herbert Hoover was a politician who became wealthy in private enterprise, not politics. He correctly connected history to our future, in that he saw a trend of the government becoming the administrative state and challenging the liberty of its citizens.
No better current example of this is the Environmental Protection Agency’s continued overreach after the Supreme Court, in June struck down the Obama-Biden Clean Power Plan, saying it circumvented Congress. In defeat, EPA administrator, Michael Regan announced the Biden administration will continue to enforce the climate agenda through enforcing a “suite of rules” which have no connection to climate.
Ragen announced the future rules will tighten regulations on pollutants and expedite the retirement of power plants as the best solution for reducing greenhouse-gas. While not directly passed and funded by Congress, Regan contends authority is approve by congressional grants already in place.
Proponents are urging Mr. Biden to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling and continue to circumvent Congress through similar regulations. This is not government of, by or for the people.
These regulatory moves and the EPA are being challenged by Professor Emeritus of Physics at Princeton University, William Harper, and Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Richard Lindzen. They claim that EPAs regulations are not based on scientific fact, but on political opinions which have used hypothetical models, consistently disproven.
The professors claim government studies are lacking scientific methods in that they are “cherry-picking data and omitting voluminous contradictory data, [which] is commonly employed in these studies and by the EPA.” Dr. Harper was director of research at the U.S. Department of Energy where he said he funded research that was already known to be an overstatement of the harm and levels of CO2.
Drs. Happer and Lindzen testified before Congress that 600 million years of CO2 and temperature data contradict the theory that high levels of CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming. They presented CO2 and temperature data indicating much higher levels of both CO2 and temperatures than today and show there is little correlation between the two. They also argue that current CO2 levels are historically at a low point.
Drs. Lindzen and Harper are not alone. They are joined by scores of other academic leaders who have taken issue with the climate agenda and been pushed out of academic positions and had grant funding dry up. Dr. Lindzen calls the world-wide agenda a “hoax,” for profit.
Our subject is the administrative state, not climate change, but the above is an example of how our government creates administrative agendas, skirting Congress to create its basis for power and control.
Here in New Mexico, gerrymandering in the Second Congressional District remains in the court, with an October 1 deadline. Republican attorneys have requested testimony from Democrat politicians on how they reached conclusions on the congressional map that is now in question. The Democrats are refusing to give depositions or testify, citing a constitutional rule that protects them from having to explain their statements and positions while in session.
It appears they do not want to explain their criteria for redistricting the 2nd CD. They claimed it was for legitimate reasons when they did it, but now they won’t discuss those reasons before the court which now has to decide the case.
This move is totally about political control and power and not in the people’s favor. It is one of the things wrong with government and why the people hold politicians in diminishing respect.It is our place to remind them, they work and represent us and not their power grabbing agendas. Perhaps it is time to send them a letter or make a phone call to inform them we oppose the administrative state and want our government back in the hands of the people and not political party schemes.
Tom Wright is a Santa Fe writer and investor in El Rito Media, LLC, owner of the Rio Grande SUN.