EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Declaration May Pressure U.S. Lawmakers
By Jim O’Connell and Catherine Dodge
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed declaration that greenhouse gases pose a health danger may increase pressure on Congress to pass new limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants and factories.
White House approval of the finding, sent to the administration yesterday, would clear the way for the EPA to impose the first limits on carbon dioxide emissions from carmakers such as General Motors Corp., utilities such as American Electric Power Co., along with steelmakers and other manufacturers.
Still, President Barack Obama and business groups prefer that Congress, not the EPA, develop any new rules on emissions that contribute to global warming.
“The president has made quite clear on this that the way to deal with greenhouse gases is to work with Congress in order to put together a plan that deals with this and creates a market for renewable energy,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday.
Bill Kovacs, vice president of environment, technology, and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said a so-called endangerment finding by the EPA is the wrong path to limiting emissions.
The EPA should let Congress establish a system because lawmakers could set emissions standards that won’t harm businesses, he said.
Democratic lawmakers are developing proposals that would require industrial polluters to obtain a permit for each ton of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere.
Obama’s proposed budget assumes sales of permits for carbon emissions would raise $646 billion from 2012 to 2019.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman is drafting legislation on a so-called cap and trade system.
Give Credits
The legislation creating permits for carbon dioxide emissions is likely to give some credits away to manufacturers to discourage them from moving overseas, Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, said last week.
Thomas Gavin, a spokesman at the Office of Management and Budget, said the White House has received the EPA’s proposed finding and “we hope to expedite the review process.”
An OMB Web site shows that the White House is reviewing the EPA document, titled a “Proposal for Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse Gases.” The Web site doesn’t contain other details.
EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy said the proposal was sent to the White House March 20. She wouldn’t confirm the content of the finding.
Public Comment
Before any finding becomes final, there would be a period of public comment, she said in a statement yesterday. The document the EPA submitted doesn’t propose requirements on greenhouse gas emitters or new regulations on current projects, she said.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide could be restricted by the government under the Clean Air Act, and ordered the EPA to determine whether the emissions endangered the public. Former President George W. Bush declined to curb the emissions.
U.S. Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads House global warming panels, said in a written statement that the EPA finding “will officially end the era of denial on global warming.”
Since Obama took office in January, the EPA has taken steps to prepare for regulating greenhouse gases. The agency in March proposed requiring factories to submit annual reports to the federal government on their emissions.
The first reports would be submitted in 2011 and cover emissions in 2010, according to the proposal. Car and engine makers would begin their reports for 2011 models.
The U.S. produces about 20 percent of the planet’s man-made carbon-dioxide emissions, according to Energy Department figures.
To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington, at Cdodge1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 24, 2009 06:17 EDT
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