The other shoe or the gun to the Senate's head
The boom you are going to hear this afternoon is the other shoe dropping.
The Obama administration will formally declare Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap even if Congress fails to enact climate legislation, sources familiar with the process said.As Eli was saying when others poo-pooed the chances for climate change legislation
The move, which Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa P. Jackson will announce at an afternoon press conference, comes as the largest climate change conference in history gets underway in Copenhagen. It will finalize an initial "endangerment finding" by the government in April.
Obama put a gun to Congress' head. That's the entire purpose of the EPA ruling that CO2 is a pollutant that endangers health and welfare. EPA must now draft regulations to limit the damage and THAT will force a vote in Congress on greenhouse gas legislation. The fallback in case Congress does not pass legislation is no longer nothing, but EPA regulation which should concentrate everyone’s mind. Look for EPA to throw some pretty tasty draft regulations out there fast to turn the screws even tighter. Congress has to get out in front of the steamroller. Ethon is gonna look for some flattened liver treats in the middle of the road.Joe Romm had it earlier. While he is still a bit hot, he is not close to being as whiny, misleading and self absorbed as others Eli could name. Climate Progress has become the place to go to find out about science policy on climate issues
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5 comments:
Inhofe says they can keep this tied up in the courts for years.
The denialists and their industrial pals will try and keep anything tied up in court including laws. To an extent they can but they eventually get ground down. The weakness of regulations vs. legislation is that governments change.
I must admit I didn't think they'd pull it off.
Best,
D
In regards to legal challenges, the topic has already been to the Supreme Court. So anybody looking to bring a challenge will have to study that decision carefully, to see what room they actually have.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_v._Environmental_Protection_Agency
Thanks, Eli.
I believe the seminal and forcing case in this matter is when my own fair Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the EPA to declare CO2 a pollutant pursuant to the U.S. Clean Air Act and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 ruled in favor of plaintiff Massachusetts.[http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf]
While Mass. still has a long way to go to enforce its own laws to protect my fishy friends like eels and brook trout, at least they did do this, and for it we should be nominally grateful.
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