This editorial was written by an unapologetic bible clutching, gun owning, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck listening, Conservative who doesn’t believe the hype regarding man made global warming.  While no liberals were harmed in the writing of this article, it’s sure to piss them off to no end.  The opinions expressed here are solely the opinions of Dale Ford and don’t necessarily reflect the opinons of the Ford Report and their advertisers.

A field owner in North Florida sent me a link to the Wall Street Journal this morning that has possible implications for paintball.  According to the article which can be found HERE, as early as this coming week (December 7th-11th, 2009) the Environmental Protection Agency may be set to declare that CO2 is a ‘Public Danger’ and will be enacting more stringent regulations on CO2 emitters.

So what, right?  Those big meanyheads in big industry are destroying our environment and need to clean up their act so we can all breathe easier, correct?  If you were seeing this in the late ’70′s and early ’80′s, I might agree with you to a certain point.

However, with mounting evidence that scientists engaged in Global Warming or Climate Change research may have been holding back information that would debunk the quasi- religious belief that Global Warming is the result of man’s interference, I personally feel that the Climate Change/Global Warming movements are going to go down in history as one of the largest hoaxes ever perpetrated.

Right or Wrong, the EPA is set to declare that CO2 is a danger to the public and thus has to be regulated even more stringently than it has in the past.  While this mainly applies to large ‘emitters’ like big industry and the like, at some point the busybodies involved with environmental activism will find reason to take a look at our little  sport and declare it a “Public Danger” as well.

As an added bonus they’ll put a hurting on the obviously dangerous people running around in the woods with ‘guns’ and shooting each other.  It’s a liberal activist win-win!  The fact that plants ‘eat’ CO2 during photosynthesis and CO2 is heavier than atmospheric air is often lost on the activists, but reality is  in short supply at that camp.

Obviously the way to get around this finding is to convert to using compressed air, which is ‘environmentally friendly’, cleaner to use in your paintball guns, more consistent and overall a lot better.  However, for a field owner with a large rental fleet running on CO2, this is an investment that many may not be in a position to make right now, with the economy as it is.

With all the other pressures on the industry, fields and shops in this economy, the potential for more regulation by the EPA is a pressure that Paintball doesn’t need right now.  As a player, what can you do? Realistically not a whole lot.  If you’re still using CO2, I would urge you to convert over to compressed air if you can.  This will put you in the good graces of the environmentalist whackos, especially if you’re using ProCaps’ Eco-Fill Paintballs,   and in the long run you’ll save money as well.