Wednesday, February 18, 2009
EPA Nears Costly Regulations for Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON – EPA administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Jackson said the agency will decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.
Jackson said the Environmental Protection Agency owes the American people an opinion, after years of the Bush administration not taking a position on the matter — a track record that she referred to as a deafening silence.
"We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country," Jackson said.
Recent EPA decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using the Clean Air Act to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.
In his first week in office, President Barack Obama directed the agency to review a decision by the Bush administration denying California and other states the right to control greenhouse gases from automobiles.
On Tuesday, the EPA announced that it was reviewing a Bush policy that prohibits using the federal permit process to require new coal-fired power plants to install equipment to reduce carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
Jackson said Tuesday that the agency was now turning its attention to the broader question of regulation under the Clean Air Act as part of a series of steps it was taking to move toward what she called a carbon-constrained future. The federal law has been used since 1970 to curb emissions that cause acid rain, smog and soot.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that it could be used to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but the Bush administration refused to use the law, saying it was the wrong tool.
Jackson took a different position Tuesday during one of her first interviews since winning Senate confirmation Jan. 23.
"It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed," she said.
"If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she said. "It is a very fundamental question."
Another question the EPA is hoping to answer soon is whether it will regulate coal ash as either a solid or hazardous waste, Jackson said. The EPA chief vowed to look at the issue after a spill at a Tennessee power plant covered 300 acres with up to 9 feet of toxic muck.
Eight years ago the agency said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used to dispose of wastes produced from burning coal, but it has so far not taken any action.
Jackson said a decision would occur by the end of the year.
"I think EPA, rightly so, should be looked to to say once and for all whether this material needs to be regulated as a solid or hazardous waste," Jackson said. "It can't be years, it has to be months."
But when it comes to global warming, Jackson was careful to say the EPA was not acting alone. Any regulation at the federal level would not prevent states from taking their own steps or preclude Congress from passing legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, something Democratic leaders on the Hill are already working on.
The United States is under pressure to take some action on global warming in advance of negotiations scheduled for later this year in Copenhagen on a new international treaty.
The Bush administration pulled out of the last treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, citing a lack of participation by developing countries and harm to the U.S. economy. In the late 1990s, during the Clinton administration, the Senate balked at ratifying the agreement.
Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, helped spearhead regulation of greenhouse gases in New Jersey, where she headed up the Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 until 2008. While there, she unveiled a plan to reduce the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
WASHINGTON – EPA administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Jackson said the agency will decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.
Jackson said the Environmental Protection Agency owes the American people an opinion, after years of the Bush administration not taking a position on the matter — a track record that she referred to as a deafening silence.
"We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country," Jackson said.
Recent EPA decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using the Clean Air Act to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.
In his first week in office, President Barack Obama directed the agency to review a decision by the Bush administration denying California and other states the right to control greenhouse gases from automobiles.
On Tuesday, the EPA announced that it was reviewing a Bush policy that prohibits using the federal permit process to require new coal-fired power plants to install equipment to reduce carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
Jackson said Tuesday that the agency was now turning its attention to the broader question of regulation under the Clean Air Act as part of a series of steps it was taking to move toward what she called a carbon-constrained future. The federal law has been used since 1970 to curb emissions that cause acid rain, smog and soot.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that it could be used to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but the Bush administration refused to use the law, saying it was the wrong tool.
Jackson took a different position Tuesday during one of her first interviews since winning Senate confirmation Jan. 23.
"It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed," she said.
"If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she said. "It is a very fundamental question."
Another question the EPA is hoping to answer soon is whether it will regulate coal ash as either a solid or hazardous waste, Jackson said. The EPA chief vowed to look at the issue after a spill at a Tennessee power plant covered 300 acres with up to 9 feet of toxic muck.
Eight years ago the agency said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used to dispose of wastes produced from burning coal, but it has so far not taken any action.
Jackson said a decision would occur by the end of the year.
"I think EPA, rightly so, should be looked to to say once and for all whether this material needs to be regulated as a solid or hazardous waste," Jackson said. "It can't be years, it has to be months."
But when it comes to global warming, Jackson was careful to say the EPA was not acting alone. Any regulation at the federal level would not prevent states from taking their own steps or preclude Congress from passing legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, something Democratic leaders on the Hill are already working on.
The United States is under pressure to take some action on global warming in advance of negotiations scheduled for later this year in Copenhagen on a new international treaty.
The Bush administration pulled out of the last treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, citing a lack of participation by developing countries and harm to the U.S. economy. In the late 1990s, during the Clinton administration, the Senate balked at ratifying the agreement.
Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, helped spearhead regulation of greenhouse gases in New Jersey, where she headed up the Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 until 2008. While there, she unveiled a plan to reduce the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
