EPA Will Regulate Greenhouse Gases, NW Enviros Praise Decision
When President Obama arrives at the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen later this month, he won’t be coming empty handed.
The EPA wants to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Photo from ODOT.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health, and will start regulating them as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency will move forward on plans to control greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks, and from large stationary sources such as factories.
The decision is receiving, so far, unanimous praise from Northwest environmental groups.
Environment Oregon calls this the, “Most significant step the federal government has taken on global warming.”
The Center For Biological Diversity, a national group with offices in Portland says, “We applaud the EPA for moving forward to implement one of our nation’s most successful environmental laws to avert catastrophic runaway global warming.”
Seattle based Earthjustice adds, “We are heartened to see that our government is recognizing the global warming threat.”
The decision is especially important because it means the Obama Administration can move forward to control greenhouse gases with, or without, Congress.
Here’s what they’re planning to do next:
Green Cars: The EPA will move forward on limiting emissions from cars and light trucks. By 2016, these vehicles will have to limit their emissions to 250 grams of CO2 per mile. That’s about how much a car getting 35 miles per gallon produces. EPA hopes to phase in the limits starting with the 2012 model year. This would reduce greenhouse gases from cars and trucks 21% by 2030.
Greenhouse Gas Reporting: Starting in 2011, large stationary sources of carbon, such as factories, will have to publicly report how much greenhouse gas they emit. The EPA says this should encourage business to start investing in clean air technologies.
Controlling New Emissions: Finally, the EPA will require large greenhouse gas producers to include the “best available technology” to control carbon whenever they expand facilities or build new ones.
All this has to be at least somewhat gratifying to local environmental groups in Oregon, who were blocked in their attempts to pass a cap-and-trade law in the last session of the state legislature. Nicole Forbes with Environment Oregon, says the U.S. Senate needs to continue work on climate legislation. But she says, “The stage is now set for EPA to hold the biggest global warming polluters accountable. It’s up to EPA to crack down on pollution from cars and mega industrial polluters, like coal-fired power plants.”
My conversation earlier this week with Environment Oregon’s Brock Howell now seems prophetic. Brock talked about how Obama is in a stronger position for Copenhagen because of the actions state governments are taking to reduce greenhouse gases. Even without a federal climate change law, Brock said state efforts will reduce carbon emissions by 536 million metric tons, per year, by 2020. This amount to 7% of U.S. global warming pollution in 2007.
Despite Oregon’s failure to adopt cap-and-trade, he says the state is showing leadership in several other areas. Hear what he has to say in this video.
Meanwhile, here is a replay of the EPA news conference. If you can’t see it on this page, go here
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[...] On the EPA side, there’s the NYT’s Green Inc. blog with the story, the general AP story is here, and a (somewhat) local version of it is here at Natural Oregon.org. [...]