EPA: Carbon dioxide is dangerous to public

“This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,” Jackson said in a statement. “Fortunately, it follows President Obama’s call for a low-carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation.”

The agency’s announcement on Friday was met with criticism from both business lobbying groups and anti-global warming advocates.

“[Carbon dioxide] is not a pollutant,” physics professor William Happer GS ’64 said in an e-mail, adding that the gas is a natural part of the planet’s atmosphere and that human activities bear little relation to global temperatures.

“Americans will pay a heavy price, for no benefit, if this ruling is allowed to stand,” he said.

Jackson faced criticism from environmental advocacy groups during her confirmation proceedings in January. Her refusal during the proceedings to take a clear stance on if and how the EPA should regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the 2007 Clean Air Act was received by some as a sign that under the Obama administration the EPA would not break significantly from the policies under the Bush administration.

The decision announced last Friday, however, represents a dramatic reversal in the federal government’s approach to climate change during the past decade.

The decision will allow the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under existing pollution laws without the passage of new legislation.

“It is now no longer a choice between doing a bill or doing nothing,” Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-author of the main House bill implementing federal caps on greenhouse gas emissions, said at a press conference. “It is now a choice between legislation and regulation.”

“The EPA will have to act if Congress does not act,” he added.

Under the Bush administration, the EPA took a hands-off, pro-business position that opposed imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions and categorizing these gases as pollutants. The EPA’s decision could lead to the passage of federal regulations that target pollution from cars to coal-operating power plants.

Calling the evidence behind the assertion that carbon dioxide is dangerous “compelling and overwhelming,” the EPA has deferred to science instead of business interests, Jackson explained.

Regulation of the greenhouse gases will not begin immediately, as there will be a 60-day consultation period with the industries most likely to be affected by the decision.

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Bill Kovacs, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Financial Times that he did not think businesses would react well to any attempts by the EPA to “run the economy.” He added that using the threat of EPA action to coerce Congress into passing new laws tackling global warming was “the worst possible way to make policy.”

Obama expressed a preference for a cap-and-trade system during the presidential campaign last year. Under such a policy, companies would be granted emission permits and could buy more credits from other companies to increase their emission allowance. The announcement on Friday did not address whether the EPA would use this system to regulate emissions, but Jackson has also publicly supported this system.

Some environmental advocates said that while they support congressional action to address climate change, they also view the EPA’s decision as critical.

“EPA should initiate its regulatory process now because we’ve got to get this nation moving,” Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, told The Washington Post last weekend.