Jan Schlichtmann on EPA Greenhouse Gas Classification

The Obama administration this week declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health, marking a major step -- both practically and symbolically -- toward federal limits on the carbon dioxide emissions scientists blame for global warming.

The move by the Environmental Protection Agency was prompted by a 2-year-old Supreme Court decision. It paves the way for the White House to regulate emissions from vehicles and effectively force the U.S. auto fleet to be cleaner and more efficient -- a plan the administration is expected to put in place soon.

"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said today.

"It follows President Obama's call for a low-carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation," she said. "This pollution problem has a solution -- one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."

The finding declares that "in both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."

This action opens the door to broad emissions limits in all other parts of the economy, including power plants and construction sites, which critics say could further chill an already recessionary economy. Administration officials insist they'd prefer to let Congress set those limits and that they will help spur millions of clean-energy jobs in the years to come.

Environmentalists are celebrating the so-called "endangerment finding" as the biggest statement yet that the federal government, after years of downplaying the dangers of climate change under the Bush administration, is now preparing to act boldly to combat it.

This is a "landmark moment in environmental history," Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch, said in a press release anticipating the decision.

"Where the Bush administration lagged, the Obama administration is now leading," said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club's chief climate counsel. "There is no longer a question of if or even when the U.S. will act on global warming. We are doing so now."

Critics warn that the policy could cripple small businesses and kill economic growth.

"An endangerment finding would lead to destructive regulatory schemes that Congress never authorized," a group of eight leading conservative and free-market activists, including Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, warned the EPA in a letter this week, adding later: "the Administration will bear responsibility for any increase in consumer energy costs, unemployment, and GDP losses" that result.

Source: Jim Tankersley for the LA Times

Scott discusses the story with environmental lawyer Jan Schlichtmann