EPA grabs new powers
THE Environmental Protection Agency yesterday cleared the way for regulation of greenhouse gases without new laws passed by Congress, reflecting President Barack Obama’s commitment to act on climate change at the Copenhagen summit.
The EPA ruling that greenhouse gases endanger human health, widely expected after it issued a preliminary finding earlier this year, will allow the agency to regulate planet-warming gases even without legislation in Congress.
The agency could begin to make rules as soon as next year to regulate emissions from vehicle exhausts, power utilities and heavy industry under existing laws.
Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress will still pursue legislation in Congress, which has been slow to act. But the EPA move gave a timely push to the President’s aims of securing short-term limits to harmful emissions. It was expected to inject some optimism into the two-week United Nations meeting in Copenhagen, which Obama is due to attend next week.