EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year: Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: WP, Page One

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce today that it will seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming to human health and welfare -- a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed.

The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

To defer compliance with the Supreme Court's demand, the White House has walked a tortured policy path, editing its officials' congressional testimony, refusing to read documents prepared by career employees and approved by top appointees, requesting changes in computer models to lower estimates of the benefits of curbing carbon dioxide, and pushing narrowly drafted legislation on fuel-economy standards that officials said was meant to sap public interest in wider regulatory action.

The decision to solicit further comment overrides the EPA's written recommendation from December....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071003087.html

[Lorien]

1. Unreal. It's almost as if they are taking delight in killing off life on

earth as quickly as possible. They're fucking insane.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Yes. This is a major article, with lots of background. nt

[Lorien]

3. Kickity. An important read. n/t

[brooklynite]

4. White House Disavows EPA Plan on Emissions

Source: Washington Post

The Bush administration today disavowed its own proposal to seek comment on whether the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, declaring that the proposed approach would be unworkable.

Under pressure from the Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent the past 15 months exploring how the government might regulate emissions linked to global warming, a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed.

A broad group of senior federal officials agreed late last year that new regulation would be appropriate in order to protect public welfare, but the White House rejected that finding at the time and instead called upon EPA to seek further public comment on the threat posed by climate change.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson plans to release that document, called an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, today, and it includes 95 pages of submissions from other agencies dismissing the notice as a "staff draft" that does not reflect administration policy.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071101703.html?hpid=topnews

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You'd think that after everything that's come out about the WH diluting the EPA reports, they'd take their lumps and keep quiet for the rest of the term.


Oh, who am I kidding...

[indepat]

5. America, having continued to put all its eggs in junior's basket, will likely wake

up one day inundated with such a smelly, rotting mess that nothing will ever get rid of the rot and stench. :D

[underpants]

6. Bucking court, EPA won't control climate gases

Source: MSNBC

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses.

In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress.

Environmentalists criticized the move, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worried it left open the door for mandatory reductions.

This contrasts sharply with the tone of statements President Bush made at the just-concluded G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations in Japan. The United States at that meeting joined other summit partners in embracing a policy declaration to seek a 50 percent reduction in global greenhouse gases by 2050.

In a major setback to the administration, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the government has authority under the Clean Act to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. Bush has consistently opposed that option.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25641109

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. We need actual environmentalists in charge of the EPA.

[underpants]

8. Look what else they have been up to

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3390224&mesg_id=3391171

Funny how the EPA is the only department that "industry insiders" (the environmental industry) were not put in charge of...strange that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. They do keep busy, don't they?

[iamthebandfanman]

10. Global warming isnt bad for your health!

duh!

their words, not mine.

mind you they didnt have the position less than a year ago. even with bushs cronies they hadnt gone this far... guess they were strong armed some more by the white house.

[Altean Wanderer]

11. Change their name to the 'Environmental Prevention Agency' n/t