Surprise! EPA Makes It Official - Zero Action On GHG Regulation, Climate Through Bush Departure- WP

[hatrack]

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce today that it will seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming to human health and welfare -- a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed.

The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

To defer compliance with the Supreme Court's demand, the White House has walked a tortured policy path, editing its officials' congressional testimony, refusing to read documents prepared by career employees and approved by top appointees, requesting changes in computer models to lower estimates of the benefits of curbing carbon dioxide, and pushing narrowly drafted legislation on fuel-economy standards that officials said was meant to sap public interest in wider regulatory action.

The decision to solicit further comment overrides the EPA's written recommendation from December. Officials said a few senior White House officials were unwilling to allow the EPA to state officially that global warming harms human welfare. Doing so would legally trigger sweeping regulatory requirements under the 45-year-old Clean Air Act, one of the pillars of U.S. environmental protection, and would cost utilities, automakers and others billions of dollars while also bringing economic benefits, EPA's analyses found. "They argued that this increase in regulation should be on the next president's record," not Bush's, said a participant in the lengthy interagency debate, referring principally to officials in the office of Vice President Cheney, on the White House Council on Environmental Quality, on the National Economic Council and in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).


EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071003087_pf.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. George Bush has Information Underload..he don't unnerstand the seriesness of GW

Global Change...

He is being told what to say re the issue by forces who wish not to spend money for scrubbers/filters

"It will break the backs of the industreies...they cost millions to install, etc etc"

They also know about using bio filters...such as Spanish Moss which sucks up Co2...tests done in the 60s confirm...they knew it could be done for cheap but ignorned it...thats EVIL

[kestrel91316]

2. GWBush: the Herbert Hoover of the environment. His mother must be SOOO proud.

[XemaSab]

3. I'm not surprised

:shrug:

You need to try harder next time. ;)

[Muttocracy]

5. sadly, BushCo rarely surprises on the environment. nt

[Muttocracy]

4. I was just reading the EPA press release about comments and trying to figure out what it meant

Aha, not about getting public input - stalling

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/anprfs.htm

[tinrobot]

6. In some ways, it's a good thing.

Every program he starts creates more harm than good. I couldn't imagine the devastation he'd create if he tried tackling greenhouse gases.

Best to leave this job to Obama.

[trof]

7. "The buck stops...uh...somewhere over there. I dunno."