The Australian
Source: Agencies
Washington: The US Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for global warming.
The New York Times said the EPA decision could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change laws in the US Congress and form a basis for the US position at UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
The environmental agency is under order from the US Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare -- an order the Bush administration ignored.
The new EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, told The New York Times she had asked her staff to review the latest scientific evidence and prepare the documentation for a so-called endangerment finding.
If the agency determined carbon dioxide was a dangerous pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act, it would set off one of the most extensive regulatory rule makings in history, the report said.
"We here know how momentous that decision could be,'' Ms Jackson said. "We have to lay out a road map.''
As a first step, she told the newspaper that the agency would reconsider a Bush administration decision not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-burning power plants.
In announcing the reversal, Ms Jackson suggested the EPA was considering additional measures to regulate heat-trapping gases.
The White House signalled that it fully supported Ms Jackson's approach.
The report said US President Barack Obama supported congressional action on climate change and was also committed to using the regulatory authority of the executive branch to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming.
But even Democrats who favour an aggressive approach to climate change told the paper they were wary of the agency's asserting exclusive authority over carbon emissions.
They said a broader approach that addressed all sectors of the economy and that was debated in Congress would be better than a regulatory approach that could drag through the courts for years, the report said.
The decision that would see the EPA regulate carbon would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power.
Democrats from states dependent on coal-generated electricity and manufacturing jobs, where such regulation could significantly increase costs, are nervous.
Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who has long championed the interests of the car industry, told the paper the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions by the EPA would set off a ``glorious mess'' that would resonate throughout the economy.
Ms Jackson said there was no timetable for issuing regulations governing carbon emissions and that her agency would not engage in rash decision making.