Unfortunately, it's all too clear that this Congress is going to kick the climate can down the road, increasing the risks for future generations. That said, the President can choose to use his executive authority to act on climate.
As a matter of fact, and as a matter of law, the President is legally required to act on climate, and he's actually breaking the law by not having acted in April.
In a nutshell: The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide qualifies as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. By law, that ruling compelled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do a scientific assessment on whether CO2 is a danger to human health. This led to the 2009 EPA "endangerment finding" that CO2 is indeed a threat to public health.
These results mean that the EPA must regulate CO2, according to the Clean Air Act, an act of Congress, whether the current Congress likes it or not.
The EPA issued a strong standard last summer to address auto emissions, but it is well behind on regulating stationary sources such as power plants. By law, the EPA should have issued a standard to limit CO2 from any to-be-built power plants by April 13. This hasn't happened and, consequently, the EPA is in violation of a court order. Some national environmental groups are already on record as saying they'll sue the President if a new standard isn't issued by mid-June.
We say go for it -- it's high time the laws of the land controlled CO2 emissions. And then some.
PennFuture's A Climate for Change header/graphic
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
