EPA's Smoking Gun?

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," May 13, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Life as we know it will no longer exist in 20 years. The air will be toxic with carbon dioxide. Mountains will slide into the oceans. California and Florida — underwater!

Who, who could save the planet from its peril?

Al Gore is behind me now, ain't he? His rallying cry has alerted the world to the dangers of climate change with his "inconvenient truth." But as it turns out, the truth that's inconvenient is — it doesn't look like any of this stuff is based on, you know, science. It's all about politics.

All this week, we're doing inconvenient segments, taking a look — wow, it's a big head of mine, isn't it? And why am I eating the state of California? Taking a look — oh, yes, California, you know why — taking a look at real solutions to some of the world's biggest problems like global warming.

In my book, "An Inconvenient Book" — available now in paperback — you can read about the scare tactics used by climate change alarmists in chapter one. That, by the way, is the actual size of the book. Like the tactics used by the EPA, it turns out their recent finding that CO2 is a hazard to your health may not be so dangerous after all.

Our next guest says he has a smoking gun to prove the point. A senator from Wyoming, John Barrasso.

• Video: Watch Beck's interview

Hello, Senator. How are you, sir?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, R-WYO.: Great to be with you. I am so encouraged and so happy what you're doing to call attention to this very problem, because you absolutely have an Environmental Protection Agency that is playing politics — politics over science and over our economy.

BECK: OK. Give me — first of all, let me start with the — let me start with what they're going to say. They're going to immediately say, "Oh, no, come on, this was written by a George Bush hack," this memo, this smoking gun that you have. So, let's address that right off the bat. Who wrote this memo?

BARRASSO: Well, that's great. Well, this is a memo put together by a number of attorneys. On the top of the memo it says, "attorney-client privilege," but then they released the name of one person who works for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House. And they said it's a George Bush hack. Well, I will tell you — this is somebody who actually got that job, Glenn, with Bill Clinton.

BECK: Oh, my goodness.

BARRASSO: And served six years with Bill Clinton and then served eight years with George Bush. This is a career individual in this office, has been promoted four different times.

BECK: And then you know what? But you can't trust...

BARRASSO: And most recently was promoted in the last year.

BECK: George Bush, you know, we all know what he felt about the environment, and then — and then, Bill Clinton, I mean, he hated the environment. Who did he have around him? Besides Al Gore, forget about that.

OK. Let me — let me go into the memo. And here are some of the things they say — the EPA memo on serious economic consequences: "Making the decision to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act for the first time is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities."

You can explain that? What does that mean?

BARRASSO: Well, it means if you put a bill into place like they put on regulations that affect carbon dioxide, it's going to affect any building, nursing home, small business, anyone that emits carbon dioxide and then they're going to tax it. And if they don't, then they're going to get sued by different environmental groups for not taxing it.

So, I think the Environmental Protection Agency was way off base by saying they're going to call carbon dioxide a "pollutant" and then try to regulate it. What they're really trying to do, Glenn, is use this as a club to force cap-and-trade taxes.

BECK: OK. Well, I mean, I have to tell you, you know, I don't know what kind of serious harm to the economy it would cause. According to that extreme right-wing organization, the Congressional Budget Office, they said this will cost the average U.S. household about $1,600 — I mean, I don't know what...

BARRASSO: Every year. Every year, $1,600 a year.

BECK: Where are we getting this idea that taxing people in this economy — taxing people like this at any time is something that's good for America?

BARRASSO: Well, they claim they're on a higher plane saving the planet. But I just don't buy it and I don't think the American people buy it. The American people will tell you, they think this whole thing is way over-exaggerated.

BECK: The more we hear about it, the lower the polls go, because the people are always saying we can't debate it, the debate is over. We're not buying it. The American people are farther and farther away from global warming and cap-and-trade and everything else.

But the government still continues to move forward. Any idea...

BARRASSO: Well, they want the tax dollars.

BECK: Any idea on how to stop it?

BARRASSO: Well, yes, by exposing them in a committee like I did yesterday with that smoking gun memo and saying, "Hey, look, the science isn't behind you. You're making these claims."

Glenn, I don't believe anybody that voted for this — the Clean Air Act a number of years ago had any idea or conception that carbon dioxide would be used and called a pollutant.

BECK: Hang on.

BARRASSO: This memo goes so far as it says — if you're calling that a pollutant, then you ought to call electromagnetic waves and a noise a pollutant and maybe regulate that, too.

BECK: OK. They do, it's in New York. They do. OK. Senator, thank you so much.

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