The Washington Examiner looks at the EPA's so-called "Endangerment Ruling" and concludes that "Obama has launched a thermonuclear warhead aimed directly at the very heart of congressional authority":

The EPA Endangerment Ruling assigns to the agency authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions not included under that law's purview. Indeed, when the original law was approved by Congress, nobody said a word about any agency of the federal government telling any business or industry in America how much CO2 it could emit. By now saying the law gives it unilateral authority to declare CO2 dangerous pollutants, the EPA is grabbing power to regulate the 85 percent of the U.S. economy that depends on energy derived from the burning of carbon-based fuels. Those fuels -- oil, natural gas, and coal -- are heavy CO2 emitters. This ruling thus renders congressional intent irrelevant. If the ruling stands, the law will then be whatever the president and his bureaucratic minions in the executive branch decree, not what the people decide acting through their elected representatives in Congress.

Congressional liberals who failed to get their cap-and-trade scheme approved in the Senate are ecstatic about the EPA's ruling. There was a time when American liberals worried about excessive executive power; today they cheer as Barack Obama dons the robes of the imperial presidency in ways that Richard Nixon never dreamed possible.

I don't expect this Congress to stand up for its rights, but I guess there's still the Supreme Court. The problem is that in 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA itself violated the Clean Air Act by not regulating CO2:

In April 2007 the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 549 U.S. 497 (2007) that the EPA violated the Clean Air act by not regulating greenhouse gas emissions.[1] In the ruling the Court said that the EPA Administrator must determine whether or not there was sufficient scientific evidence to support the supposition "that emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare... The Supreme Court decision resulted from a petition for rulemaking under section 202(a) filed by more than a dozen environmental, renewable energy, and other organizations."[2] Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act is titled "Emission standards for new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines" [3]

At the Emperor can't stop people from voting. Or having opinions.

MORE: I guess there is sort of a resemblance, isn't there?

And let me make one thing perfectly clear.

The EPA itself was created by Richard Nixon.

MORE: David Harsanyi looks at the EPA Endangerment Ruling, and says "What we need is a RICO trial."

It looks like vintage Nixonian nostalgia is in.

MORE: Commenter Phelps says "I'm a trendsetter!" and looking at his photo comparison, I'm inclined to agree.