EPA: Global Warming Warning on Hold
The EPA will not declare that global warming presents a threat to the public health until it releases final regulations stemming from the recent Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, which authorized the executive branch to regulate greenhouse gases, Administrator Stephen Johnson said today.
Johnson also said the EPA has not determined when it will issue a ruling on California's petition for a waiver to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles. Before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Johnson engaged in a number of testy, if ultimately fruitless, exchanges with Democrats. No Republican members appeared.
Chairman Ed Markey set the tone by first asking Johnson if he believed global warming presented a danger to the public, a key principle under the Clean Air Act to determine whether a pollutant must be regulated. The administration has not said if or how it would promulgate such regulations. Johnson said, "We believe climate change is a serious issue." Markey repeated the question, to which Johnson repeated his response. The back and forth continued several minutes in increasingly combative tones.
An exasperated Markey finally said, "You are the last major environmental minister in the western world to come to a decision on this." Johnson shot back: "I am abiding by what the law allows me to do while we undergo a public comment period."
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