E.P.A Bites CO2 Bullet Under The Clean Air Act
On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its “endangerment finding,” stating that carbon dioxide (CO2) and five other greenhouse gasses are pollutants that threaten public health and welfare. It took two years to conclude a scientific review that was ordered by the supreme court. The endangerment finding means that the EPA is now responsible to manage the damage caused by greenhouse gasses and that the EPA will take control of co2 emission’s, probably starting with transportation, then moving on to factories and plants.
This is the largest step taken by the federal government ever to fight climate change. The finding has created a 60 day comment period for the public before any proposed regulations can be announced. It may take a long time, perhaps years, for the EPA to produce rules that would control our 7.4 billion pounds of co2 that is emitted yearly in the US.
There is some concern that the EPA regulating co2 would mean that every product that has to adhere to a different set of rules is going to skyrocket price wise. No matter how long it takes or how much prices go up, this is a great win for everyone on the planet. It is something that should have happened a long time ago. Global warming is extremely dangerous to our planet and greenhouse gasses cause global warming, so now the EPA can regulate greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act.
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Scott | Oct 8, 2009 | Reply
Though there is a larger amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, the problem truly lies in the fact that there is less plant life on Earth to naturally sequester the CO2. If we would stop the reckless destruction of the environment we wouldn’t have to worry about this supposed greenhouse gas.
Oh yeah, and regulation is simply going to put money in the hands of the government, and nothing truly will be done to better the environment. If Obama truly wanted to help, he’d put solar panels on every household in America. Instead, he gave away trillions of dollars that hasn’t really stimulated anything except our nations debt.