EPA Reconsiders Decision On CO₂

The Obama Administration's EPA is reconsidering a controversial Bush Administration decision about carbon dioxide emissions. At issue is a December 2008 memorandum from former EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson stating that regulators issuing air pollution permits to power plants and industrial facilities, including chemical plants, are not required to take CO₂ emissions into account. Environmental groups asked for a reevaluation of Johnson's decision, and EPA Administrator Lisa M. Jackson granted that request last week. EPA says it "will vigorously review the Johnson memo to ensure that it is consistent with the Obama Administration's climate-change strategy and interpretation of the Clean Air Act." David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, says, "This decision stops the Bush Administration's last-minute effort to saddle President Obama with its do-nothing policy on global warming." Jeffrey Holmstead, an industry lawyer who headed EPA's air program during the first half of the Bush Administration, calls Jackson's decision "a clever procedural move that allows the new Administration to distance itself from the Bush Administration without actually changing anything about how CO₂ is regulated."