UPDATE: EPA Declares Greenhouse Gases Danger To Public Health
The so-called endangerment finding announced by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is necessary to move ahead on new emissions standards for cars due out in March 2010. Made under the Clean Air Act, it also opens up large emitters such as power plants, crude-oil refineries, chemical plants and metal smelters to regulations that limit their output of carbon dioxide and other gases.
"These long overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the U.S. government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform," Jackson said in a statement.
The controversial decision proposed by the administration earlier this year comes as a global climate summit opens in Copenhagen. It gives the administration leverage in its negotiations and puts pressure on Congress to pass a bill that cuts greenhouse gases in a more economically efficient way. Though the House has passed such a bill, the Senate has faced a number of political hurdles, including voters concerned about their economic future.
Environmentalists celebrated the announcement. "This is the most significant step the federal government has taken on global warming," said Emily Figdor, director for Environment America's federal global warming program. "The stage is now set for [the] EPA to hold the biggest global-warming polluters accountable."
But groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers warned the decision could bring the entire economy to a halt, not only regulating large emitters within months, but also opening regulations for other mobile sources and smaller emitters.
Jackson maintained the EPA would regulate in a "sensible way."
Although industry officials say no economic study of the impacts of greenhouse-gas regulations under the Clean Air Act has been published, the EPA strongly challenges dire economic assertions. Industry lawyers say if the EPA finalizes its auto-emissions rule by March 31 as expected, regulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide would automatically start 60 days later.
Without any cost analyses of new greenhouse-gas regulations, it is difficult to estimate what the actual impact could be on the economy. Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the utility industry group Edison Electric Institute, pointed to cost predictions for federal legislation as a guide to the cost. Estimates for legislation vary between $100 a year to $1,000 a year extra for families, and such legislation is specially designed to moderate costs.
"The only certainty is that EPA regulation would be far more expensive than congressional-designed legislation," Riedinger said.
Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA air administrator under the George W. Bush administration and now head of the Bracewell & Giuliani Environmental Strategies Group, said this is the first time the agency has ever made a standalone endangerment finding, which means it is likely to have been a political decision.
Previously, the EPA had synchronized endangerment determinations with its rule-makings. "It's clearly designed to set the stage for the Copenhagen conference," Holmstead said.
While the Obama administration may be given more negotiating leverage at the Copenhagen summit, some question whether it will have the desired effect on congressional action. Many lawmakers are heading into tough election campaigns next year, and the EPA's declarations come as public confidence in the science of climate change has eroded after questionable emails from prominent scientists surfaced.
Jackson said the email scandal being investigated by the United Nations wouldn't impact the agency's determination.
She indicated the agency would soon finalize a new "tailoring rule" that will set a greenhouse-gas-emissions threshold for regulators at 25,000 tons a year. This is designed to target the largest greenhouse-gas emitters in the country. The EPA says that would mean around 13,600 coal-burning power stations, crude refineries, metal smelters and other industrial facilities would come under existing regulations.
Specifically, for any new construction or modification that would affect greenhouse-gas emissions, companies would be required to apply for permits that included the "best available technology." The EPA is seen finalizing what is considered the best available technology in 2011.
Asked when the agency would draft new regulations for existing large emitting facilities, Jackson declined to give a timeline.
But provisions in the EPA's tailoring rule may mean the 25,000-tons-a-year threshold won't apply in many states.
Peter Glaser, a lawyer representing utilities at the firm Troutman Sanders LLP in Washington, said the EPA tailoring proposal explicitly says that federal law doesn't preempt state laws on the major pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act. According to the EPA, many states have a 100-ton-threshold level for operating permits and 250-ton level for construction permits. If those levels apply, they would affect 1 million to 4 million facilities across the country, the EPA said.
The agency has also left open the possibility to adjust the federal 25,000-ton threshold within the next five to six years. While targeting the large emitters first, the agency buys time to "vigorously develop streamlining measures that would facilitate applying [regulations] on a broader scale without overburdening sources and administrators," the EPA said in its proposed rule.
According to the EPA, such permitting could possibly cause gridlock for regulators.
