EPA Announces Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse Gases

Greenhouse gases are officially a threat to public health and the environment in the eyes of the federal government. Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized [1]its endangerment finding for greenhouse gases. The finding will now compel the agency to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act.

What a difference a year makes. The Bush administration spent eight years delaying regulatory action on climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. It sealed its legacy [2] when it finalized a rule in November 2008 forbidding warming from being considered in the development of endangered species regulations. (That decision has since been overturned [3].)

Now, EPA will move on to the meat and potatoes of greenhouse gas regulations: vehicle emissions limits and standards for stationary sources. EPA has already propose [4]d versions of both rules.

Also yesterday, EPA and other federal departments and agencies released the fall version of their Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions [5], the semiannual plan laying out timetables for upcoming rulemakings. EPA says [6]it will finalize the vehicles standard, which it is developing in tandem with a Department of Transportation rule to strengthen fuel efficiency standards, in March 2010. (Strangely, DOT projects [7]its rule will be finished in April 2010, though I’m sure they will be finalized concurrently.) EPA projects [8]it will finalize its stationary source standards – the so-called “tailoring” rule which would craft emissions limits to apply only to large facilities – in April 2010.