Remember that little green alien, Gazoo, in the Flintstones that would always interfere in Fred’s life and try to help him out, but in the end, he’d make things dramatically worse? Well, the United States has its own green Gazoo, The Environmental Protection Agency, and they’re about to interfere heavily in all aspects of American life.

The agency is planning to release a document today, an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by significantly regulating all aspects of the economy. Phil Kerpen, policy director for Americans for Prosperity highlights a number of these dangers:

Not only would motor vehicles be regulated in the EPA’s new rules — and to a much greater degree than they are in new regulations coming from the Department of Transportation — so would light-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, buses, motorcycles, planes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, mining equipment, RVs, lawn mowers, fork lifts, and just about every other piece of equipment that’s got a motor in it. The new regulations in many cases could require complete equipment redesigns and operational changes.”

To make matters worse, the ANPR will include a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. In effect the PSD would,

[…] require permitting for businesses and structures that emit as little as 100 tons of greenhouse gases per year. That threshold may make sense for some air pollutants. But for carbon dioxide it’s frighteningly low, and would subject millions of never-before-regulated entities to an expensive and lengthy EPA permitting process. Any building over 100,000 square feet would be pulled in, as would numerous smaller buildings that produce carbon dioxide. Small businesses, restaurants, schools, and hospitals that have commercial kitchens with gas burners would all be affected.”

The cap-and-tax scheme to reduce GHGs proposed by the Senate in June (but quickly died on the floor) would have had dire consequences for the U.S. economy, extracting trillions of dollars from Americans. As Heritage senior policy analyst Ben Lieberman summarizes, having EPA in control of the situation could be drastically worse:

An endangerment finding for carbon dioxide would lead to a regulatory scheme far more extensive than those Congress has wisely rejected. The economic impacts, unintended consequences, and public backlash could be unprecedented.”