EDITORIAL: EPA just might get in your grill

Once any federal agency funds a study of something, it’s almost always because that agency has an interest in finding out whether or not it should start regulating that thing.

Consider a recent news item involving the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to a story reported by Fox News, the EPA is funding a $15,000 study by the University of California-Riverside that examines the particulate emissions backyard chefs breathe in when grilling over an open flame. Upon seeing the story, former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. — now president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based free-market think tank — voiced his concerns about the study in a post on his personal website.

“Ladies and gents, I just cannot ascertain when the absurdity of this current administration will cease,” he wrote. “The weather is finally warming up, and one of the rituals of spring and summer is the family BBQ. Well, it is for now until the Environmental Protection Agency has its way. … Why is the EPA concerned about BBQ grill emissions? Who are these people and why are they using one single dime of American taxpayer dollars for this tomfoolery?”

A reader of the Tampa Bay Tribune saw Mr. West’s post and asked the folks at the paper’s famed PolitiFact.com site to look into it. The site reviewed Mr. West’s post, took a look at the Fox story and asked the EPA about it. In its ruling on the matter, PolitiFact pointed out that the funding for the study came from a national student design competition, and that such projects “are examples of scientific inquiry, not examples of federal rulemaking.”

In a statement to PolitiFact — which also appeared on the Fox story referenced by West — the EPA said it “does not regulate backyard barbecues and does not plan to in the future.” The site concluded that “reasonable people can disagree over whether the research projects in question are worth spending tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds,” but ultimately ruled that West was wrong to claim that EPA wants to regulate the family barbecue.

Sure, the EPA can tell Politifact whatever it wants, and the folks at PolitiFact can interpret the EPA’s response however they see fit. But the EPA’s response doesn’t change the irrefutable fact that taxpayers are still funding a barbecue study that could, one day, make grilling out way more expensive.