RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that could endanger public health and welfare, a move that will likely set the stage to regulate harmful emissions, mainly carbon dioxide. No regulation guidelines were announced Friday, but earlier in the week lawyers from environmental powerhouse groups Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council said regulations requiring better fuel efficiency in vehicles will likely be the first step. Regulating other huge emitters, like coal-fired power plants, could follow.
“This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations. Fortunately, it follows President Obama’s call for a low-carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation,” says EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “This pollution problem has a solution—one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country’s dependence on foreign oil.”
THE DETAILS: The decision to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases stems from an EPA “endangerment finding” in which an analysis of peer-reviewed, scientific data found that six gases—carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride—present at unprecedented levels (as a result of human emissions) are altering the climate.
Today’s finding comes about a decade after EPA was first petitioned to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. In 2003, EPA denied that petition and a D.C. Circuit Court upheld the agency’s decision. In 2007, the Supreme Court rejected the EPA’s reasons for denying the petition, and ordered the agency to base its decision on whether tailpipe emissions contribute to air pollution that endangers health or welfare. At the end of 2007, the EPA found there was a positive endangerment to welfare (they wouldn’t say it threatened human health), submitted it to the White House, but then withdrew the proposal.
The endangerment finding determined that ground-level ozone pollution threatens human health and impacts climate changes that trigger drought, heavy downpours and flooding, more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires, greater sea level rise, and more intense storms, and that bring harm to water resources, farming, wildlife, and ecosystems.
The proposed endangerment finding now enters the public comment period, the next step in the process before it is finalized.
WHAT IT MEANS: This result of a 10-year legal hoopla has huge implications, but there are still many questions that will need to be answered in the coming months. What will the first regulations focus on? What kind of gas mileage standards will new vehicles need to meet? When will this go into effect? What are other countries doing to curb this planetary problem? For sure, this is a step in the right direction, and one that sets the stage for President Barack Obama to emerge as a leader in Copenhagen this December when the world meets to try and find solutions to a warming planet.
Regardless of government regulations, you can take action now.
• Talk to your state officials. With the EPA decision in place, environmentalists believe states will feel more confident in moving forward with more greenhouse gas reduction measures within their borders.
• Cut your own emissions. Celebrate this EPA decision by setting some low-carbon goals in your family’s life:
Conserve—Use compact fluorescent light bulbs, and set your home temperature a little higher in the summer, and a little cooler in the winter.
Eat without emissions—Trade in disposable coffee cups and bottled water for a reusable mug and buy “Bird Friendly” or “Rainforest Alliance” certified coffee to insure carbon-storing rainforests aren’t being chopped down for your morning cut of java. Eat less red meat, which has a higher carbon footprint than other foods, and choose organic food whenever possible because organic growing methods add carbon to the soil instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
Share your ride—Carpool, ask if you can work from home at least one day a week, take the bus, subway, or train, walk, or ride a bike to work when you can, and drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can afford.