Climate and energy

Just a sampling of the carbon drama - rules? regulations? harmful? not harmful? etc. – at the federal level this past few weeks or so.

Keep in mind, during all this, President Bush just accepted greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets as part of G8 negotiations.

EPA says carbon dioxide emissions harm human health (Rueters). Quotable: “In a 149-page document, the agency’s scientists said that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and that potential health risks include more heat waves, floods and droughts, insect outbreaks and and wildfires, along with crop failure and decline in livestock and fisheries productivity.”

The White House had previously refused to open the email that contained that EPA study (NYTimes). “The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.” What was finally released was supposedly significantly watered down.”

Vice-President Cheney was also involved in heavy censoring of CDC testimony on the health risks of climate change (AP), apparently “fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.”

The EPA administrator refused to create rules and regs for carbon dioxide, despite a Supreme Court decision mandating this compliance (Reuters and LATimes). Instead, he kicked the issue over to Congress, where a cap and trade bill failed last month. Quotable:

Last year’s Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court ruling had found that greenhouse gases can be regulated under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The decision pressured the EPA to reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks.

But instead of laying out rules, Johnson solicited public comments for a 120-day period on a nearly 1,000 page draft on the effects of climate change and the ramifications of the Clean Air Act on greenhouse emissions.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org