EPA still going slooooow on setting new greenhouse gas regs

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told Congress today that his agency will finally roll out regulations on carbon dioxide later this spring -- more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must reconsider its 2003 refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

In a letter to key congressional leaders, Johnson explained his caution by saying that regulating carbon dioxide — a leading greenhouse gas — "could affect many (emission) sources beyond just cars and trucks" and needs to be closely examined before a decision is made, the Associated Press is reporting.

"EPA will present and request comment on the best available science including specific and quantifiable effects of greenhouse gases relevant to making an endangerment finding," Johnson said in his letter, according to a report from Reuters.

In response to a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts and 11 other states (plus three cities), EPA argued to the Supreme Court that it had no power to regulate greenhouse gases as pollution. The case hinged on a section of the Clean Air Act that says the EPA administrator "shall" set emission standards for "any air pollutant" from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines "which in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." The EPA said greenhouse gases, specificially carbon dioxide, did not meet that test.

But the Supreme Court shot down that argument on a 5-4 vote, forcing the EPA to finally take action. Why the delay? Noted Reuters: " The United States is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, but the Bush administration to date has adamantly opposed mandatory regulations, citing inaction by other major emitters like China and India."

Incidentally, speaking of Massachusetts, a coalition of environmental groups released a report this week that says New England is nowhere near meeting its carbon reduction targets under an agreement signed in 2001. In fact, "global warming emissions have increased in most sectors of the region's economy, from transportation, electricity generation, and fossil fuel consumption," according to a story in the Boston Globe.

To read the AP report (well, more like a brief) on the EPA letter, click here. To read the slightly longer Reuters story on the EPA, click here. And to read the Globe story on New England's carbon problem, click here.

--Craig Pittman