 News
More evidence emerged of White House interference in the development of EPA policy dealing with climate change. Former EPA official Jason Burnett testified in a Senate hearing that a finding by the agency that carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles were endangering human health and welfare, a response to the Supreme Court's April 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, was withheld under pressure from the White House and replaced with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). The ANPR makes no formal conclusion and only solicits comments on a possible regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act rather than requiring regulation under the Act as an endangerment finding would have done. The proposal, along with preliminary comments from several federal agencies, was published in the Federal Register on July 30 and is open for public comment until November 28.
On July 17, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) released its final report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.6 entitled Analysis of the effects of global change on human health and welfare. The report was followed by the July 31 release by CCSP of Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.1 entitled Climate Models: An Assessement of Strengths and Weaknesses.
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Climate Change:
From Scientific Knowledge to Policy Development (January 11, 2008)
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Articles
Reports of Pushback from White House on EPA Climate Change Policy
Climate change policy discussions in July were dominated by controversy surrounding decisions made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its long-awaited decision on whether or not to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. As part of the April 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court ordered EPA to determine whether or not automobile carbon dioxide emissions endanger public health and welfare (an “endangerment finding”) and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. As of the end of June 2008, word on a final decision was still awaited, despite a writ of mandamus filed in April by Massachusetts and its accompanying plaintiffs requesting that the decision be released. Continue reading...
The Latest Climate Change Roundup
June was an active month for talk on climate change, both on and off Capitol Hill, although the center of attention was on the Senate floor, where the long-awaited Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill (S.3036) got off to a rocky start on June 2. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Joseph Lieberman (I/D-CT), and John Warner (R-VA), was designed to gradually reduce the nation’s overall carbon emissions to about 70 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It would put forth a market-based cap-and-trade scheme similar to the one currently used in the European Union for carbon emissions and in the United States for sulfur dioxide emissions. Continue reading...
Global Warming's Effects on the World's Oceans
On April 29, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing on the impact of global warming on the world’s oceans, a relatively new topic of exploration for the nation’s policymakers. The scientific experts at the hearing provided varying perspectives on the oceans’ vulnerability to the mechanisms of climate change, but all four were unanimous that the policies that affect the oceans urgently need to change. Continue reading...
Substitute to Climate Change Bill Released
A substitute to the “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007” (S.2191) bill was released to the public on May 20. The substitute was drafted by the original bill’s three primary authors, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and John Warner (R-VA), and is expected to achieve more support than the original. Continue reading...
Another Consuming Month for EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to frequent the halls of Senate and House office buildings on Capitol Hill, as Members of Congress in both chambers dissect the agency’s latest climate change moves. Congress has dealt the EPA another subpoena this month and hauled agency heads to testify in committee hearings yet again. Meanwhile, the agency’s most recent smog standard debuted with modest support from industry, environmental groups, and Congress. Continue
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Congress Considers Energy Tax Incentives
Congress toiled this month to address concerns over escalating fuel prices and the upcoming expiration of tax credits for renewable energy producers. The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing on the first of the month to discuss the increasing oil profits and continued government subsidies to the oil industry in the midst of a fuel crisis. Meanwhile, a recently introduced bipartisan bill in the Senate offers a temporary extension of renewable energy tax incentives in the hopes of gaining support in both parties. Continue
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Congressional Hearings Examine Impact of Climate Change on Human Health
National Public Health Week, which took place April 7-13, brought two hearings addressing climate change and its impacts on human health, one with the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the other with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
The theme of both hearings was that climate change is likely to bring with it an increase in certain types of health problems, particularly in disadvantaged populations such as children, the elderly, and the poor. Continue
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EPA Saga Continues
Controversies, investigations, and subpoenas continue to trail the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this month. After announcing in a short letter to the state’s governor his decision to refuse a waiver that would grant greenhouse gas regulation rights to California, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson remained silent on the reasons for his decision for nearly two months. Johnson finally released a lengthy document outlining his rationale on February 29. The basis for Johnson’s argument is that the Clean Air Act allows the waiver to be granted if California wishes to address pollution at a local or state level. Since climate change is a global problem, the waiver would thus be inappropriate. The response on Capitol Hill from prominent Democrats and California legislators has been extremely critical, leading to another subpoena, more investigations, and several probing hearings. Continue
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EPA Denies California Waiver
After much coaxing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally delivered a decision late December on whether it would approve a waiver to California to allow the state to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. EPA’s Administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, declared that the agency would not grant California the waiver because the state had not proven the “existence of compelling and extraordinary conditions” for enforcing restrictions other than those stipulated by the Clean Air Act. Continue
reading ...
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Climate Change & Energy Statements and Letters
--AAAS sent a letter to Members of the Environment and Public Works Committee "to take action now to enable a debate on the Senate floor on how best to mitigate and adapt to climate change." The letter draws upon the AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change. (November 30, 2007) AAAS then thanked key Members for their efforts. (December 14, 2007)
--The AAAS Board of Directors released a statement on the “The Crisis in Earth Observation from Space.” According to
the statement, “The network of satellites upon which the United States
and the world have relied for indispensable observations of Earth from space
is in jeopardy” due to budget constraints and a shift in priorities. (April
28, 2007)
--The AAAS Board of Directors released a statement on climate change, noting that the "scientific evidence is clear: global
climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing
threat to society." (February 18, 2007)
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Updated August 7, 2008
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