EPA to Phase in Regulation of GHG Emissions by 2013
In a letter to eight coal-state Democrats, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson wrote that regulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) would be phased in gradually and would not impose expensive new rules on most American businesses. Jackson assured the senators that only the biggest sources of GHGs would be subjected to regulatory limits before 2013 and smaller ones would not be subjected to limits before 2016.
The letter suggests that the EPA is pulling back from its earlier aggressive stance towards GHG regulation under the Clean Air Act (see Endangerment ruling), when it announced in dramatic fashion in the lead-up to Copenhagen that it would begin regulating tailpipe emissions. Most likely, the Administration recognizes the growing political sensitivity surrounding climate change and has opted to pull back as mounting law suits and legislative menuevers challenge the EPA’s regulatory authority.
On the issue of a legislative versus regulatory approach to cap-and-trade, Jackson wrote:
I share your goals of ensuring economic recovery at this critical time and of addressing greenhouse gas emissions in sensible ways that are consistent with the call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation.
But Ms. Jackson also warned that if the Republicans thwarted the agency’s efforts to address climate change, it would kill the deal negotiated last year to limit carbon pollution from cars and light trucks and would have a chilling effect on the government’s scientific studies of global warming.
It also would be viewed by many as a vote to move the United States to a position behind that of China on the issue of climate change, and more in line with the position of Saudi Arabia.
The eight Democratic senators, led by John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said hugely significant decisions about energy, the economy and the environment should be made by elected representatives, not by federal bureaucrats.
