A “Game Changer” For Global Warming

By Hadas deGroot

The Environmental Protection Agency is soon expected to declare global warming pollutants a threat to public health and to hold polluters accountable under the Clean Air Act.

In 2007 the Supreme Court upheld the EPA’s authority to determine whether scientific evidence is strong enough to prove that global warming pollution is a threat to public health. The release of the EPA’s decision is expected soon though the exact date is unknown.

Environmental experts are certain that the findings will show global warming to be a threat.

“There is no question that the EPA should make a positive endangerment finding,” said Dr. Amanda Staudt, Climate Scientist for the National Wildlife Federation. “As far as I’m concerned, the science compels no other outcome.”

The implications of such a decision will be significant. “This will be the largest step that the Federal Government will have taken to date,” said Joe Mendelson, Global Warming Policy Director for the National Wildlife Federation. Mendelson expects the outcome to be mandatory reductions in US global warming pollution.

“We’re anticipating this first action from EPA to be in the realm of motor vehicles,” explained David Bookbinder, Chief Climate Counsel for Sierra Club. Federal guidelines for multiple sources of global warming pollutants are expected to follow.

If EPA declares global warming pollution to be in violation of the Clean Air Act, Emily Figdor, Federal Global Warming Program Director for Environment America, said that the next step lies in Congress. “The United States needs an overall plan to create a clean energy economy and that’s the role for Congress,” Figdor stated.