EPA Prepares to Finish Off Auto, Coal, and Industry

From Red Dot in a Red State

The Obama Administration, through the EPA, is prepared to use the Clean Air Act to enforce mind-numbingly strict regulations upon all elements of our economy which depend upon the burning of carbon-based fuels (story link). While EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is quick to point out that regulations are not imminent, she did make it clear that they are ready to move if Congress fails to curb emissions.

Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), who heads the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that will craft the legislation over the next few weeks is quoted as saying

It now changes the playing field with respect to legislation. It’s now no longer doing a bill or doing nothing. It is now a choice between regulation and legislation.

The regulatory barrage will be unleashed against six gases and compounds which are claimed to be responsible for “Global Climate Change”: Carbon Dioxide (CO2); Methane (CH4); Nitrous Oxide (N2O); Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s); Perfluorocarbons (PFC’s); and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6).

I’d like to take you through each of these, and try to determine why the EPA is hell-bent on removing these emissions.

CO2 is a normal byproduct of any combustion and respiratory function, as well as a normal product of countless chemical reactions. It is a necessary gas for photosynthesis and therefore is required for plant life. It accounts for a very small percentage of our atmosphere, just a bit over 0.038%. Water vapor, by comparison, makes up around 1%.

To be considered as a contributing factor to Global Warming, it must retain heat, or infrared (IR) radiation. While all matter absorbs some heat, CO2 is particularly bad at it. Three very narrowly defined frequencies, in the upper IR band are all that is absorbed. The upper IR band is a lower energy section of what is called the overall radiation power curve. The higher the frequency, the lower the amount of “energy” is present. The frequencies absorbed by CO2, in their voyage from the Sun, are absorbed completely within the first few dozen meters of our atmosphere. They never have reached the ground. They never will reach the ground. Additional quantities of CO2 does not change this fact. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere becomes completely irrelevant to the discussion of atmospheric, or ground level temperatures.

Next on the list is Methane (CH4). Methane is a normally occurring gas on many planets in our Solar System, including Earth. It is also a product of biological decomposition, and makes a handy fuel. It is also the largest naturally occurring, and most readily available source of non-oxidized hydrogen that I know of. Non-oxidized hydrogen is important for many industries, including the auto industry if we’re ever going to run our cars with it. Not that that is likely (in fact, it is just about impossible), but I just thought I would mention it. CH4 is responsible for around 2 parts per million of our atmosphere, or 0.0002%. A very small contribution.

Methane has been targeted because it is a small part of automobile exhaust, due to the incomplete burning of gasoline and diesel fuel. The catalytic converter (a device near the end of an automobile’s tailpipe which burns remaining unwanted compounds in the presence of a catalyst – platinum) removes much, but not all, of the left over products from burning carbon-based fuels. Attempting to push for a major reduction in percentage of released methane will be a useless, but highly expensive venture. And there is no need as it is such a small percentage of exhaust. Higher temperature, and higher efficiency engines will eventually reduce the percentage anyway.

Methane has about the same IR absorbing abilities as CO2. It also absorbs just three narrow frequencies in the upper IR range. As such, it poses absolutely no threat to planetary temperatures. If Methane concentrations ever rose to the point where it was acting as a greenhouse gas, everything would have long since died from suffocation.

Nitrous Oxide (N2O) was fairly interesting to see on this list. Commonly found in dentist’s offices as the “laughing gas” used to ease suffering, in modified automobiles to increase horsepower, and in whipped cream canisters as a propellant, it is another tiny, tiny fraction of our atmosphere – less than 0.5 parts per million.

N2O absorbs a higher amount of energy than either CO2 or CH4, but at a single, fairly high frequency. Combined with its almost non-existence in the atmosphere, and at the tailpipe of any automobile with a catalytic converter, it also poses absolutely no threat to Earth’s temperature.

The last three are not atmospheric gases, but trace compounds that can be found in the lower atmosphere close to ground level. While it is possible to find all three in auto exhaust, especially diesel truck exhaust, they are in very small amounts. In addition, all three are far denser than air (Sulfur Hexafluoride is about 5 times denser than air, for example, and PFC’s can be twice as dense as water) which means that they will fall to the ground and be broken down by microbes. Any found in the mid to upper layers of the atmosphere could only have been put there by volcanic activity.

All three have other uses, so to control them will be to control any industry which uses them. SF6 has uses in high-voltage electrical switches, medical uses, and as an easy to measure, inert test gas in ventilation systems.

HFC’s are used as refrigerants, fire suppression agents (such as Halon), are required for the production of many plastics such as Teflon, and have a very short lifespan in the atmosphere. PFC’s are non-toxic, non-flammable, thermally stable, chemically inert, and break down readily and rapidly. They have medical uses such as ultra-sound imaging, and have shown great promise as an ingredient in artificial blood.

While in a laboratory setting HFC’s, PFC’s, and SF6 can act as a greenhouse gas, on a planetary scale they would be useless. Achieving a high enough concentration of these compounds over a long enough period of time to have any effect can only be achieved through volcanic activity. The level of activity required would wipe out all life on the Earth’s surface long before higher temperatures would do the job.

Every scientist who remembers second year organic chemistry and first year physics would know all of this. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone with a degree in Chemistry or Physics to be hoodwinked by the claims of the EPA and the IPCC regarding these chemicals. So why attack these six gases and chemicals? Four reasons: ideological adherence; economic manipulation; political control; and sheer stupidity.

This is my gauntlet. Any scientist who adheres to the claim that any of these six have anything to do with Climate Change must do so for at least one of the above reasons, period. Politicians, I can forgive if they never studied science, believe scientists who are lying to them, and are bowing to political pressure from a constituency who simply does not know any better. Scientists of related fields deserve no such quarter.