On April 17, 2009, almost two years after the Supreme Court asked the EPA to investigate the dangers of global warming, and if it should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, the agency announced that green house pollutants are unsafe for people. Particularly, for the young, the old, and the ill.
EPA administrator, Lisa P. Jackson talked about some of the toxic culprits. In addition to carbondioxide, there are concerns .jpg)
about methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.
Ms. Jackson stated, "This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations."
According to Environmental Defense Fund’s deputy general counsel Vickie Patton, "the U.S. is taking its first steps as a nation to confront climate change. EPA's action is a wake up-call for national policy solutions that secure our economic and environmental future."
The Environmental Defense Fund expects the EPA to begin developing national emission standards for new motor vehicles and new coal-fired power plants, the nation's two largest sources of global warming pollution.
David Doniger, Policy Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote on their web site “At long last, the Environmental Protection Agency today officially recognized that the carbon pollution from our cars and power plants leads to killer heat waves, stronger hurricanes, higher smog levels, and many other direct and indirect threats to human health. With this step, the Obama administration has gone a long way to restore respect for both science and law. The era of defying science and the Supreme Court has ended.”
The EPA announcement opens a 60 day comment period, in which there is expected to be a lively debate on the pros and cons of capping carbon emissions in a troubled economy.
In a speech last month at an environmental forum, EPA administrator Jackson was quoted as saying, "the best solution, and I believe this in my heart, is to work with Congress to form and pass comprehensive legislation to deal with climate change. We hope to avert a regulatory thicket where governments and businesses spend an inordinate amount of time fighting.”
“We are not looking for a doomsday solution,” she added.
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Comments
"capping carbon emissions" - Let's all hope!
Good information Jean!
I guess the diseases the exact causes of which are undisclosed such as cancer, allergy, autism, and more, might take root in environment toxins in the air, water, food.
Are you kidding me. This article for one is not objective so therefore isn't even journalism. This is just another hit piece on the pseudoscience of global warming. How about listening to the majority of climate scientist that say yes there is global warming but man caused global warming is just a scam being portrayed by global elitist in their attempt to bankrupt this and other countries. i.e. Al Gore (known global elitist) owns a carbon trading comapny and his (main) house uses more electricity than 10 regular homes. How can a hypocrite get any kind of respect. And anyone saying that CO2 is a green house gas needs to go back to high school and take some basic science classes. Without CO2 this planet dies.
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