{"id":644,"date":"2009-03-24T13:17:52","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T17:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=644"},"modified":"2009-03-24T13:17:52","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T17:17:52","slug":"obama-to-weigh-clean-air-act-emissions-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/03\/24\/obama-to-weigh-clean-air-act-emissions-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama to weigh Clean Air Act emissions regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The EPA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/03\/23\/AR2009032301068.html?hpid=topnews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sent a finding to the White House<\/a> on Friday that should surprise no ecologists: that greenhouse gases are pollutants that endanger the public welfare. What might surprise ecologists is that it was sent at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Until the final days of the Bush administration, the executive branch dragged its feet on a 2007 edict by the Supreme Court that they decide whether to use the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions.\u00a0 Finally they punted, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/07\/10\/AR2008071003087_pf.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">saying last July<\/a> that <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"> they would<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"> instead seek extensive public comment on the threat of greenhouse gases to human welfare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Now, with the information it received on Friday, the Obama administration will have to decide whether to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">President Obama has said in the past that he\u2019d prefer to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through legislation, probably within an energy bill that imposes an emissions cap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Bill Kovacs, the vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, thinks that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/discussion\/2009\/03\/23\/DI2009032301281.html?sid=ST2009032301298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">now is the wrong time<\/a> to bring up the issue again. If the administration decides to move forward with the Clean Air Act, he says, then any infrastructure project, including the ones just beginning under the stimulus bill, will be subject to extensive review for greenhouse gas emissions. A situation like this could be disastrous for the economy, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">A spokesperson for the EPA said that if accepted, the proposal would still need public hearings and comment before it would become final and \u201cwould not impose any new regulatory burdens on any projects,\u201d according to the Washington Post.<br>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Whatever the outcome, the EPA\u2019s move highlights a very different attitude at the agency since January 20.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Read the Washington Post article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/03\/23\/AR2009032301068.html?hpid=topnews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<br>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EPA sent a finding to the White House on Friday that should surprise no ecologists: that greenhouse gases are pollutants that endanger the public welfare. What might surprise ecologists is that it was sent at all. Until the final days of the Bush administration, the executive branch dragged its feet on a 2007 edict by the Supreme Court that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,2,48],"tags":[176,177,93,178,179],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-ecology-in-policy","category-research","category-ecology-and-society","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-clean-air-act","tag-epa","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}