EPA Set to Classify Greenhouse Gas a Danger

This story appears in the March 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to declare that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public’s health and welfare — a move that could accelerate government rulemaking related to air quality.

Legally, after EPA makes an “endangerment finding, they’re under obligation to protect health and welfare,” said Glen Kedzie, environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations.

Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said an endangerment finding opens “the way for the EPA to begin thinking about the two biggest sources of emissions: coal burning and transportation.”

According to a statement from the federal agency, a document sent March 20 to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review was a “proposed” endangerment finding.

If, however, OMB approves the proposal and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signs it, the finding could set in motion a scenario under which the agency, not Congress, sets greenhouse gas emission standards for everything from cars and trucks to oil refineries and coal powered utilities.

News of the EPA finding puts pressure on Congress to address legislatively greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, said Kedzie and others.

“It’s an important step, and it’s going to intensify the pressure on Congress to act sooner or later,” Kedzie said of the finding.

Environmentalists and leaders in various industries, including trucking, prefer that Congress rather than EPA develop any emission standards.

“I think there would be fewer lawsuits if it was done by Congress, and I think [it] would mean we’d have progress quicker,” O’Donnell said.

For trucking, the most important issue in emission standards is consistency, ATA’s Kedzie said.

“We can’t end up with a patchwork of different greenhouse gas requirements established across the country, whether that’s state requirements or regional requirements,” he said.

EPA’s move to issue a finding represents a significant reversal of the Bush administration’s policy on climate change.

The Supreme Court in 2007 said the agency had the authority to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and ordered it to determine whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were pollutants under the provisions of the federal Clean Air Act.

The Bush administration, however, delayed in making a determination. In July 2008, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said the agency needed more time to study the issue before it could make a determination.

O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch said that while an EPA endangerment finding would be a “landmark,” he does not believe the finding would immediately affect the transportation industry.

“I think over time it will prompt calls for far more efficient methods of transportation,” O’Donnell said. “Whether that comes in the form of better fuel economy standards on cars or greenhouse gas emission standards for cars . . . or longhaul trucks, I don’t think anybody knows,” he said.

Kedzie disagreed that a finding would take years to affect transportation. He said there are already legislative proposals to require reduced emissions from truck engines. Currently, he said, one of the problems for industry is that efforts to grapple with greenhouse gas emissions are not in sync.

“You have [some] states moving ahead at a certain pace, while others are moving at a different pace,” he said. “All the moving parts are . . . moving at different speeds.”