EPA looking into regulating CO2 for the first time ever; national auto emissions standard coming?
More potential changes in the way the EPA does business. Following the decision to re-open the states' rights question on limiting carbon emissions and the California waiver issue, President Obama said yesterday that the EPA could soon take on CO2 more broadly. The EPA could decide by early April whether or not carbon dioxide is a pollutant and a danger to the public, CNN says. If the EPA does so, then greenhouse gas emission regulations would kick in and would, in the words of the New York Times, "set off one of the most extensive regulatory rule makings in history."
The EPA is currently looking into how regulations might prevent endangerment to public health, and automobile manufacturers would obviously fall under any new CO2 regulations. From the hints available in the media, it looks like the administration would prefer Congress to put together a cap-and-trade system that would affect pretty much all economic sectors, not just the dirty few.
Buried at the end of the CNN piece is this: "the administration had directed the EPA and the Department of Transportation to develop a national policy for auto emissions." Details are hazy, but it looks like the California standards (or a slightly changed version) could be the basis for a national standard.
[Source: New York Times via Treehugger, CNN]
Photo by Clinton Steeds. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
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