The EPA rules greenhouse gases a public threat

[cal04]

Source: CBS Marketwatch

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released two key findings regarding greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act. The EPA said the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide, methane and others -- threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. The EPA also made a "Cause or Contribute Finding" that the combined emissions of these greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution which threatens public health and welfare. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson cited melting polar ice caps and other factors

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-epa-rules-greenhouse-gases-a-public-threat-2009-12-07

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/07/epa.greenhouse.gases/index.html
EPA: Greenhouse gases a public health threat

[fascisthunter]

1. about time! But Good to See...

regardless.

[kestrel91316]

2. Very good. Time to start fully accounting for the consequences of

our actions, and remedying them.

[tk2kewl]

3. can we get a color-coded threat level to go with this?

:evilgrin:

[bergie321]

5. I thought

We already did. I thought there were different shades of brown hanging over our cities depending on the pollution level...

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cal.

[BREMPRO]

6. Awesome! HUGE change from Bushco policy. n/t

[cal04]

7. EPA finally makes it official: Greenhouse gases endanger the American public.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/07/epa-endangerment-copenhagen/

After years of denial, suppression, and delay, the United States government has finally officially recognized that greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The Obama administration has slowly worked on the decision, first sent to the White House by the Environmental Protection Agency in March, then opened for months of public comment through the summer. Less than an hour after the United Nations Climate Change Conference completed its opening day in Copenhagen, Denmark, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made the “significant climate announcement” at 1:15 pm that global warming pollution endangers the health and welfare of the American public:

This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we avoid the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren. Today, I’m proud to announce that EPA has finalized its endangerment finding on greenhouse gas pollution and is now authorized and obligated to make reasonable efforts to reduce greenhouse pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

In 1992, the United States signed an international treaty to “prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system” from greenhouse gases. Seventeen years later, after the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases have decimated the world’s glaciers and Arctic ice cap, acidified the oceans, intensified hurricanes and droughts, increased smog and wildfires, and driven species to extinction, the Barack Obama administration is recognizing its legal obligation to begin regulating this deadly threat.

[Quantess]

8. Oh, pshaw. This is all such a hoax.

What we really should be concerned about is people accidentally falling off the edge of the earth.

[clear eye]

9. US climate agency declares CO2 public danger

Source: The Guardian

Environmental Protection Agency declaration allows it to impose emissions cuts without agreement of reluctant Senate
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009 20.24 GMT

The Obama administration adopted its climate change plan B today, formally declaring carbon dioxide a public danger so that it can cut greenhouse gas emissions even without the agreement of a reluctant Senate.

snip

"Climate change has now become a household issue," said Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), adding that the evidence of climate change was real and increasingly alarming. "This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we ignore the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren."

The announcement gives the EPA a legal basis for capping emissions from major sources such as coal power plants, as well as cars. Jackson said she hoped it would help to spur a deal in Copenhagen.

The EPA action had been seen as a backstop should Congress fail to pass climate change law. Obama and other officials had repeatedly said they would prefer to pass legislation, but that prospect has grown increasingly remote. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill in June, but the proposals have stalled in the Senate.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/07/us-climate-carbon-emissions-danger

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Wow! Talk about your good news/bad news.

Good news--the U.S. can now enforce whatever agreement it ratifies at Copenhagen.

Bad news--the Senate refuses to act apropriately on an end-of-humanity issue, the White House is again acting by fiat further disempowering citizens, and, according to another Guardian article I posted on DU earlier, the measures expected to be proposed in Copenhagen are too little, too late to save us, say environmental scientists.

[clear eye]

10. Unrecommend?

Do we have a flat-earther here?

[kestrel91316]

11. Better half a loaf than none. I am sure President Obama doesn't want to

answer his daughters years hence when they ask why he did nothing, with merely a shrug. He can say he did his best.

I am afraid his best, and ours, will indeed be too little, too late. And I am glad I have no children to answer to.

[Capn Sunshine]

13. yes, because we're DOOOOOOOOOMED

too little! Too Laaaaaaaaaate!
We're dooooooooooomed

[kestrel91316]

15. Sigh. Explain to me how we are NOT going to see catastrophic

sea level rise and drought and flooding if we DON'T get CO2 back down to 350 ppm. Please provide a detailed climatological science-based explanation, backed up by data and links.

You won't, because you can't. The science is settled, and fucktards such as yourself are too busy thumping your bibles or buying oil company stocks to give a rat's ass about the wreckage you leave behind.

[Capn Sunshine]

20. Fucktards?

Because I still harbor some hope.
Thanks for the wakeup call, douchebag

We're DOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.

[boppers]

21. Please explain to me how sea level rise, drought, and flooding will eliminate the human species.

Please provide a detailed climatological science-based explanation, backed up by data and links.

You won't, because you can't. The science is settled, and alarmists such as yourself are too busy thumping your press releases or buying green company stocks to give a rat's ass about the wreckage you leave behind....

See how that works? Climate change is a real problem, but position-driven advocates have become so shrill that the actual science is being distorted, and people are starting to discount the science, becoming confused by both the "alarmists", and "skeptics", who both seem to take excessive liberties with the science.

Simply state the facts, no more, no less.

[AusDem]

12. actually, i think by going around the senate, the WH

is probably EMPOWERING citizens. (well, at least balancing the scales). No longer to do citizens in small states have the ability to completely override something that at least 53% want, and is clearly so vital to many who live on the coasts.

[clear eye]

14. It's vital to everyone, but we have a history of 8 years of "signing statements"

which were originally used to clarify points of a law to the agencies who had to execute them, instead being used to announce the intent to of the executive branch to ignore critical parts of laws passed and/or replace some measures by fiat. Unfortunately this administration, rather than using its position to proclaim such behavior unconstitutional, has authored some signing statements of its own. Our gov't is seriously out of whack if it is supposed to be a representative democracy.

Of course the major cause of this situation, the ability of mega-corporations to finance political campaigns, is being for the most part ignored by the MSM and the Congress, and therefore the public. A case has lingered before the Supreme Court w/ the majority of the Justices favoring abandoning all restrictions on corporate campaign donations claiming that they are "protected political speech". They are only being held up by the sticky question of mega-corps' donations including foreign money. When they figure a way around that (and they will) the auction will be full on. U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan has proposed a "voluntary" option to permit a candidate to forswear all corporate and large donor money and collect a large number of under $100 donations to be matched from a gov't fund and an additional amount given. I plan to post more on this soon, but it seems to be going nowhere fast.

[SpartanDem]

16. Fiat?

The EPA has this authority under the Clean Air Act

[fascisthunter]

17. crazy people run this country

and look at the shape they got us into?

[Gregorian]

18. I just heard on the BBC this lets Obama make cuts without Congress!

This could get interesting, if that's true.

[naaman fletcher]

19. I am against this:

There is a massive public debate going on about this. The administration has decided to simply ignore whatever it is the will of the people will wind up being, and do what it wants.

Now, what the administration will do is likely what we want it to do, but when W did this sort of thing everybody complained about the unitary executive and such, acting like a dictator, etc.

[Javaman]

22. Good thing we stopped that drilling in the arctic. Oh wait. nt