EPA moving toward regulation of greenhouse gases

Agency will decide if emissions blamed for global warming are a danger to human health and welfare.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming.In an interview on Tuesday with the Associated Press, Jackson said the agency would decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.

Jackson said the EPA owes the American people an opinion. "We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country," Jackson said.Recent EPA decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using the Clean Air Act to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.Jackson took a different position Tuesday during one of her first interviews since winning Senate confirmation Jan. 23."

It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed," she said."If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she said. "It is a very fundamental question."Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, headed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 until 2008.

Click here for the full LA Times article.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: EPA Scientists Complain of Political Interference

An outside survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists of EPA scientists found that 60% of the respondents complained of political interference, i.e., one instance of interference in the last 5 years (the negative responses were: 900 out of the 1,600 respondents in a 5,400 person survey.

PNL Stories (Current Affairs on 3/18/08) previously reported on the story of Dr. Deborah Rice accused by the Bush Administration of conflict of interest even as many of the EPA's panels are loaded with scientists who work for the very companies whose chemicals they are evaluating.

In 850 anonymous essays (optional in the survey), almost 100 scientists singled out the Office of Management and Budget for inserting pressure at early stages of the evaluation process and then delaying the release of studies until changes, more to its liking, are effected. On numerous issues—ranging from mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate change— political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations.

On a positive note, 1,282 scientists (81%) respected the integrity and professionalism of their direct manager or supervisor, while 686 (43%) said the same about the EPA’s senior leaders. A spokeswoman for the Union admitted that only those who are disgruntled might reply to the online survey, but stated that 900 responses was far too many to ignore. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday asking him to be prepared to respond to the findings at a hearing next month of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

REGULATION: EPA DNAPL website

The US EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation has constructed a website that compiles available information related to the cleanup of dense nonaqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs) at hazardous waste sites. The website was developed in response to a recommendation of the EPA Ground Water Task Force, which identified a need for the creation of a comprehensive compilation of DNAPL resources. The Task Force purpose is:

• The task force will serve as the main technical/policy/communication/networking resource for OSWER on groundwater issues.



• The task force will promote cross-program coordination and communication on technical and policy issues related to the cleanup of contaminated groundwater.



• The task force will identify, prioritize and work to solve and/or provide guidance on groundwater issues and projects that will benefit multiple clean-up programs.

The Ground Water Task Force is one component of EPA's One Cleanup Program, which is integrating the assessment and cleanup efforts of solid and hazardous waste cleanup programs to increase the speed and efficiency of environmental cleanups and improve the sharing of information with affected citizens. Task Force efforts are conducted under Initiative I: More Effective and Consistent Cleanups of the One Cleanup Program.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: EPA Investigated for Spiking Key Panels with Industry Reps

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by John Dingell of Michigan (pictured left), will investigate the US EPA for possible conflicts of interest. The Committee sent a letter to the US EPA which states, the chair of an EPA external peer review panel, Dr. Deborah Rice, had been dismissed from her position after the American Chemistry Council complained Rice was not impartial because she had previously expressed concerns about the health effects of the chemical under review.

Meanwhile, the letter notes, at least nine EPA panels assessing the human health effects of toxic chemicals have included individuals alleged to have financial interests in the chemical industry.

Mr. Dingell said, “The EPA seems to have a backwards way of composing these panels. EPA is disallowing scientists who have valid public health concerns about products, while encouraging participation by so-called experts who are paid by the chemical industry.”

CLIMATE: EPA boss justifies Clean Air Act waiver denial, and off to court we go!

EPA administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, finally issued his justification for denying California's Clean Air Act waiver (the denial is discussed in a 1/24/08 PNL Stories post). The denial was issued last December after California requested permission to pass tailpipe emissions standards stricter than federal guidelines.

Mr. Johnson, against the recommendations of his staff scientists, denied the request and stated that the new federal fuel efficiency standards, passed in December, were sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that there shouldn't be a patchwork of state's emissions standards.

EPA issued its long delayed 47-page report in the Federal Register, and that clears the way for California and 18 other state to proceed with a lawsuit in federal court to fight the denial.

Administrator Johnson wrote: "While I find that the conditions related to global climate change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify separate state standards."

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown dismissed Johnson's arguments as "obfuscating, sabotaging . . . specious, ill-founded. . . . We're going to fight him until he's sent packing by the next president." State regulators argue that by 2020 California's law would achieve twice the reduction as the federal fuel standards.

A document was released Tuesday by Senator Barbara Boxer who wants the denial reversed. She said the draft (written in conjunction with former administrator William K. Reilly), as well as internal agency e-mail messages she released, demonstrated that the E.P.A. was “in crisis.” Mr. Johnson’s decisions, she said, “went against the professional scientists and the professional legal experts.”

CLIMATE: EPA chief says no to California on tougher emissions rules!

On December 19, 2007 EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, denied California a waiver from the Clean Air Act (CAA) that would have allowed the state (and others that wanted to follow) to enact stricter tailpipe emission standards than the federal government. In December, President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act which mandated higher fuel efficiency standards for the first time in three decades.

The EPA denied the waiver based on these new federal standards, thereby saying that California has no 'compelling and extraordinary' needs above that of the rest of the country. California and 15 other states will sue the federal government to overturn the waiver denial. The EPA has granted over 50 CAA waivers in three decades.

EPA staff filed an endangerment finding at the White House today stating that greenhouse gases pose a threat to the nation's welfare. EPA staff concluded that the effects of climate change could hit California particularly hard, including by harming coastal communities and wildlife, increasing ozone levels, contributing to more wildfires, and reducing water supplies.

Approval of the finding by the White House would clear the way for states to enact their own stricter laws; but 16 states are suing to override, and a bill to override will be introduced in Congress.

Administrator Johnson made his ruling despite this finding by his staff. He testified today in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committees, chaired by Senator Boxer, that his decision was not politically influenced.

(classic Bacsik)