Washington (dpa) - In a landmark ruling Friday, President Barack
Obama's administration found that greenhouse gases threaten US air
quality and public health, setting the stage for new limits on
industry emissions that cause global warming.
The so-called "endangerment finding" by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) ends a long-running dispute between the
government and environmental groups and marks the latest shift on
climate policy since Obama took office in January.
The decision, which has to be submitted for public comment for 60
days before being finalized, would allow the government to regulate
industry emissions of six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide,
under existing clean air laws in the United States and without
additional congressional approval.
That could pave the way for tougher federal standards on emissions
from cars, power plants and other sources of global warming. EPA head
Lisa Jackson said the agency's ruling "confirms that greenhouse gas
pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations."
But it remains unclear how far the administration will use this
authority. Congress is considering its own legislation this year to
stiffen limits on emissions, and the White House has said it would
prefer to wait for lawmakers to agree on a way forward.
"Today the EPA concluded that our health and our planet are in
danger. Now it is time for Congress to create a clean energy cure,"
said congressman Edward Markey, who heads a subcommittee charged with
shepherding climate legislation through the US House of
Representatives.
But the idea of limiting emissions from US industries still faces
stiff resistance from many lawmakers and some businesses, who fear
that it would be devastating to the US economy as it goes through its
worst recession in decades.
Former president George W Bush long rejected imposing mandatory
limits on climate-damaging pollution, and the EPA finding comes
nearly two years after the US Supreme Court said the agency must
consider regulating greenhouse gases under the existing Clean Air
Act, a 1990 US law governing air pollution.
Bill Kovacs, a vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce,
warned the EPA's finding could take the issue out of the hands of
legislators and open the door for more court action by climate groups
to force a whole host of industries to limit their emissions - a
possibility that "would kill economic growth and jobs."
The EPA said the science "clearly shows" that human-caused
emissions were resulting in a rise in global temperatures that
"endanger public health and welfare" including stronger storms, more
droughts, heat waves and flooding.
"The US is taking its first steps as a nation to confront climate
change," said Vickie Patt of the climate group Environmental Defense
Fund. "EPA's action is a wake-up call for national policy solutions
that secure our economic and environmental future."
Jackson would not say whether the EPA will impose limits on
industry to enforce the findings, but said the "solution" to global
warming was finding ways to encourage green energy technologies.
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