EPA Is Sued Over Carbon Emissions

A coalition of states, cities, and conservation groups is challenging the Bush Administration???s decision not to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants and industrial facilities across the nation.

The Clean Air Act requires that the Environmental Protection Agency review and revise emission standards for new stationary pollution sources every eight years to ensure that they protect public health and the environment.

In February, EPA issued new source performance standards but declined to regulate carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for global warming. The agency argues the Clean Air Act does not authorize it to regulate emissions to reduce global warming and maintains there are not enough scientific data to support such a move.

But in lawsuits filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., the petitioners assert that EPA has clear authority under the law to set limits on emissions linked to global warming. ???In defense of public health, the environment, and our economy, power plants must be required to sharply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,??? New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says. ???EPA???s newly adopted rule represents an abdication of leadership and foresight in favor of the unacceptable status quo.???

???It's just plain English and common sense,??? adds David Doniger, policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council???s (NRDC) Climate Center. ???Carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, and curbing the pollution that causes global warming is EPA???s job under the Clean Air Act.???

EPA ???will review all options and make an informed decision on how to proceed,??? according to an agency statement. ???EPA???s climate protection programs continue to exceed the agency???s greenhouse gas emissions goals and are on target to meet the President???s 18% goal to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 2012.???

Lisa M. Jaeger, a partner in the Washington office of the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani and a former acting EPA general counsel, says the agency has determined that the Clean Air Act does not grant it authority to regulate carbon dioxide for global warming purposes.

Jaeger notes that in July 2005, a three-judge panel of the same D.C. appellate court upheld EPA???s decision not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks under the Clean Air Act. ???Unless Congress rewrites the law, Mr. Spitzer???s lawsuit is simply without merit,??? she says.

In addition to New York, states participating in the lawsuit are California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. They are joined by the District of Columbia and New York City. A coalition of environmental organizations, including NRDC, the Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense, filed a related petition.