Global Issues
U.S: Environment Agency Moves to Regulate Carbon Dioxide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun the initial stages of a process that may lead to the federal agency's first regulations to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants and oil refineries.
The agency has held four of five 'listening sessions', including one attended by IPS in Atlanta, Georgia, on Feb. 15. The EPA also held a meeting with electric power industry representatives in Washington, DC, on Feb. 4; a meeting with state and tribal representatives on in Chicago, Illinois, on Feb. 17; and a meeting with coalition group representatives in Washington earlier Wednesday.
The EPA will hold a fifth hearing for petroleum refinery industry representatives in Washington on Mar. 4, and is also accepting written comments from the public through Mar. 18. 'In December, [EPA administrator] Lisa Jackson committed to set standards for two carbon dioxide most-polluting industries, the electricity and utility sector, and the petroleum and refining sector,' Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator at the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said at the Feb. 15 meeting.
'But before beginning to set standards, she wanted to hear from the public... especially the environmental justice communities,' McCarthy said, referring to grassroots groups that defend the rights of low-income communities and communities of colour, where polluting plants and factories have often been located.
The EPA is pursuing these standards under the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) programme and under the authority of the Clean Air Act, which McCarthy called 'our most flexible tool in the toolbox'.
After years of inaction by the U.S. Congress, which is debating whether to pursue even a weak, market-based policy of carbon emission credits trading, Jackson made the stunning announcement in December 2009 that the agency would look at regulating carbon dioxide under the existing powers already granted to the agency under the Clean Air Act.
This followed the landmark 2007 court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide can be defined as a pollutant. This definition has allowed the agency to pursue regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. Shortly after President Barack Obama took office, the EPA also issued an important ruling that global warming is a threat to public health and safety, which laid the groundwork for the current process.
Leaders of environmental and environmental justice organisations, as well as members of the public, spoke at the Feb. 15 hearing. 'What about the core mission of the EPA?' Nicky Sheats, member of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, asked. 'How are the standards going to protect the public health of communities and residents?'
Sheats argued the EPA should also regulate existing coal plants, not only new ones. 'We support EPA's authority and decisions to protect low- income people,' said Seandra Rawls of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. 'There are 90 coal plants in the Southeast [U.S.]... emitting 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. We need to retire old facilities. We must require a limit by a certain date.' 'The southeast is more vulnerable to the impact of climate change,' Rawls said, citing coastlines, sea level rise, erosion, storms, and drought.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service