EPA likely to regulate emissions for first time

President Obama promised change when he was elected, and now it appears that he has enabled a big one. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce within months that for the first time it will regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The move would serve as an official recognition of global warming as an environmental threat. And, frankly, we can't believe it took so long.

For some time agency experts have been virtually unanimous in their declaration that carbon dioxide emissions are a pollutant and a danger to public health. However, the previous administration refused to allow the EPA to regulate this danger. During the previous administration a Supreme Court order for the EPA to determine the impact of carbon dioxide emissions was essentially ignored.

Lisa P. Jackson, the new EPA administrator, has announced that her staff is reviewing the evidence and has hinted that she may announce a decision by April 2, the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, which occurred in the case Massachusetts v. EPA.

Says Ms. Jackson, "We here know how momentous that decision could be. We have to lay out a road map."

Regulation by the EPA of carbon dioxide emissions would be a tremendous victory for alternative energy technology. It would allow financial pressure to be applied to power utilities, making them more likely to switch to solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, or other alternatives. Further, it would mark the U.S. government at last deciding to join the world community in trying to cut carbon dioxide emissions and fight global warming, something which would make more than a few ecogeek's day.

Via NYTimes