EPA Says Carbon Dioxide, Other Global Warming Gases Are Public Danger
By John O'Dell April 17, 2009Ruling Opens Door to National Regulation of Automotive CO2 Emissions
By
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
It's official: the federal Environmental Protection Agency, as expected, has issued a ruling that so-called greenhouse gases endanger human health and well-being.
The ruling, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signaled was coming during her confirmation hearings in the Senate back in January, is in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the Bush Administration had no grounds for refusing to make a determination about the health impacts of the carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that are emitted by factories, motor vehicles, livestock and just about everything else on the planet, natural or manmade.
The "endangerment" finding has tremendous implications in the automotive arena because it opens the door to national regulation of tailpipe emissions of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming. Because they are a direct result of burning carbon-based fuels, the quickest way to reduce them it is to demand increased fuel economy in our vehicles.
California already has tried to do that with a set of greenhouse gas emission regulations of its own, but was blocked from implementing the rules by the Bush administration and is now awaiting a ruling from the new Obama admiministration EPA.
The administration has signaled that it might just use the California rules - which would boost average passenger vehicle fuel economy to about 42 miles per gallon by 2020 - as a blueprint for nationwide regulation.
Today's ruling by Jackson was heralded as a long-overdue victory by environmental groups.
"The U.S. is taking its first steps as a nation to confront climate change," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.
"Global warming threatens our health, our economy, and our children's prosperity. EPA's action is a wake up-call for national policy solutions that secure our economic and environmental future," she said.
Automakers, however, maintain that requiring them to nearly double average fuel economy in less than a decade would be ruinously expensive at a time when the economy is in a deep recession, car sales have plummeted and losses rather than profits are the industry norm.
The EPA's ruling comes as Congress is considering global warming legislation of its own. The House Energy Committee begins hearing next week on a measure called the American Clean Energy and Security Act and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - a Californian sympathetic to the state's efforts to regulate automotive greenhouse gas emissions - has said she wants to bring the bill to the floor for a vote this year.
While greenhouse gases come from many sources, the EPA limits its oversight to sources with annual carbon dioxide emissions of emitting 25,000 tons or more. So while automakers and power plants could be regulated, there are no reported plans to slap carbon taxes on livestock operations and other small emitters.
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California's rules do not extend to 2020. That is a staff recommnendation, which has not yet even been introduced, much less put into law. Their rules end in 2016. In that year, their fleet wide fuel economy standard is 32.3 mpg. See Table 6 on page 10 of CARB's own document:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ccms/reports/pavleycafe_reportfeb25_08.pdf
Today's annoucement, coupled with a potentially affirmative decision on the California fuel economy program, means that in the near future, fuel economy will be regulated by three government agencies, under three sets of rules, with three different standards. The American Clean Energy and Security Act Waxman would codify this this sitation.
What environmental benefit is gained by the triple regulation of fuel economy is unclear.
This amounts to more taxation. People believe that the automaker corporations will pay for compliance with the new regulations. At face value this is true, but they will of course pass these additional costs on to consumers. That means people like you and me will be paying for these regulations.
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