EPA declaration sets stage for more regulation

By Jim Tankersley

Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ The federal government's declaration Friday that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health marked a first step toward likely regulation of the tailpipe emissions of cars, power plants and factories that scientists blame for global warming.

The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency was a clear break with the Bush administration, which downplayed concerns about global warming, and set the stage for a possible national standard for vehicle emissions and other federal efforts to curb such pollution.

The Obama administration already is developing a plan to make the U.S. auto fleet cleaner by regulating carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes. But the move Friday also gives it the capacity to either regulate larger emissions producers like power plants or prod Congress to set limits, which the administration would prefer.

Lawmakers have begun debating legislation that would crack down on power plant emissions, which generate twice as much greenhouse gas as cars and trucks. But the prospect of the White House taking action could push Congress to come to an agreement.

"The Obama administration now has the legal equivalent of a .44 magnum" to fight global warming, said Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch. "The bullets aren't loaded yet, but they could be."

Environmentalists celebrated the EPA's action as the clearest signal yet that the Obama administration is prepared to act boldly to combat global warming. O'Donnell called the move "a landmark moment in environmental history."

But critics say the EPA decision, and the regulations that could accompany it, could chill an already recessionary economy.

"An endangerment finding would lead to destructive regulatory schemes that Congress never authorized," a group of eight leading conservative and free-market activists warned the EPA in a letter this week. They added that "the administration will bear responsibility for any increase in consumer energy costs, unemployment and GDP losses" that result.

In its ruling, the EPA declared that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases endanger public health. "In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem," the agency declared. "The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."

The ruling includes a lengthy summation of scientific warnings about human contributions to climate change, and of the potentially devastating impacts that could result.

But in finding that greenhouse gases endangered public health "within the meaning of the Clean Air Act," the EPA also moved beyond what most Americans think of as air pollution, said Bill Farland, a former top EPA scientist who is now senior vice president for research and engagement at Colorado State University.

The EPA is equating otherwise benign gases that are leading to rising temperatures with traditional pollutants such as smog and lead, he said.

"Clearly, you can expose animals and humans to (carbon dioxide) without a harmful effect," Farland said. "On the other hand, in today's society there's mounting information that if you continue to release CO2, it's going to be problematic from a climate change perspective."

Friday's decision said that automobiles, which produce about 20 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, contribute directly to climate change. The administration is expected to develop vehicle emissions limits along the lines of strict regulations that California and other states are attempting to adopt.

Some industry groups said the text of the decision appeared to give the administration an "off ramp" to avoid widespread regulation.

William Kovacs, a vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the finding allows the EPA to delay emissions limits until technology improves and compliance costs fall, a move he said would avoid "disastrous" regulations that would all but put the EPA in control of the entire economy.

Obama often links carbon emissions limits _ and the price increases they would assuredly impose on fossil fuel energy _ with the creation of millions of jobs through renewable energy development. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a press release Friday that global warming "has a solution _ one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."

The next move belongs to Congress. The House will reconvene Monday after a two-week break, with a major climate bill on its agenda. One of that bill's drafters, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Friday called the EPA decision a "game-changer" that will force representatives to assume that if they don't limit emissions, the administration will.

Markey was echoed by the Senate's lead climate bill drafter, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who said that if Congress fails to pass a climate bill, "then I will call on EPA to take all steps authorized by law to protect our families."

The EPA will accept public comments on its finding for two months, and it has scheduled public hearings in suburban Washington and in Seattle. Industry groups will ramp up their economic warnings. The Sierra Club on Friday launched a campaign to generate a half-million comments in support of the finding and other parts of Obama's climate agenda.

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© 2009, Tribune Co.

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