Gases ruled health threat

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 19/4/2009 Page: 39

WASHINGTON: Cars, power plants and factories could all soon face much tougher pollution limits in the US after the country's Environmental Protection Agency shifted course and announced that carbon dioxide emissions were a threat to human health.

In a landmark ruling that could signal a major change in US environmental policy, the EPA review of scientific evidence concluded that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases "endanger public health and welfare" under federal clean air laws, that they help cause climate change, and they pose an enormous threat "in both magnitude and probability".

It is the first time that the US Government has said it is ready to use the Clean Air Act to require power plants, cars and trucks to curtail climate changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. The agency said the science pointing to man-made pollution as a cause of global warming was "compelling and overwhelming". It also said exhaust emissions from motor vehicles were a contributing factor.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson cautioned that regulations were not "imminent", and made clear that the Obama administration would prefer that Congress addressed the climate issue through a broader carbon-trading program that would limit heat trapping pollution. Even if regulations were not imminent, the EPA action was seen as likely to encourage action on Capitol Hill. Democratic Congressman Ed Markey, whose House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hopes to craft legislation soon, called the EPA action "a game-changer". "It is now a choice between regulation and legislation," he said.

Republicans and some centrist Democrats have been critical of proposed carbon trading legislation, arguing it would lead to much higher energy prices. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio called the EPA's move towards regulation "a backdoor attempt to enact a national energy tax that will have a crushing impact on consumers, jobs and our economy". Environmentalists called the EPA action a watershed in addressing climate change.