Gina McCarthy is working overtime to ensure her final 22 months as head of the EPA take America back to the Stone Age succeed in radically curtailing fossil fuel emissions via regulatory fiat – regardless of the economic ramifications. And if that means opposing the Keystone pipeline to make a political point, so be it. When asked on Monday by Politico’s Mike Allen, “Would the Keystone pipeline be a disaster for the climate?” McCarthy retorted, “No, I don’t think that any one issue is a disaster for the climate, nor do I think there’s any one solution to the climate change challenge that we have.” The EPA’s point of contention, it claims, has to do with the likelihood that giving Keystone a thumbs-up will encourage future development. As The Hill explains, “Keystone’s climate impact was the focus of a letter the EPA sent in February to the State Department, which is evaluating whether to approve the Canada-to-Gulf Coast oil pipeline, which would carry oil sands from Alberta. The EPA said that with oil prices so low, Keystone might spur more oil sands production than would happen without the pipeline.” What’s needed is economic mobility, but this administration’s feckless desire is to drive energy costs artificially higher. Clearly, Keystone would undermine that attempt, and this administration is willing to forgo the project’s obvious dividends – which includes no major climate implications, by McCarthy’s own admission – to achieve its goal. More…