JLF throws small business under the bus

Sacrificing thousands to benefit the few:

Thousands of N.C. businesses could have to apply for permits to release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, state environmental officials say, after a conservative think tank filed objections.

The agency ruled it would focus solely on the largest gas emitters, such as coal-fired power plants. The state Environmental Management Commission adopted the EPA rule. But objections, filed largely by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation, put a legal hold on them.

Proving (once again) that all that hooey about being on the side of "entrepreneurs" is just a smokescreen to obscure their whoring for the fossil fuel industry.

That leaves the state with only a broad-brush mandate that's already in effect. Taken literally, it means up to 50,000 N.C. businesses, including office buildings and small industries, would have to get greenhouse gas permits if they build new facilities or expand old ones. State regulators estimate compliance costs at more than $490 million a year.

Why would they do that, you ask? Why would they oppose a compromise that would release thousands of small businesses from having to comply with the new EPA rules? It's pretty simple, actually.

Art Pope's minions are gambling that, by causing this pain to so many struggling North Carolina companies, the cumulative outrage will inspire the General Assembly to enact statutes that will force DENR to defy the EPA's rules across the board, thus allowing the big emitters (power plants) to avoid compliance as well.

The fate of those 50,000 small companies means less than nothing. They're not even pawns in this game, they're just cannon fodder.