The EPA Speaking Up

The Environmental Protection Agency released an announcement early Monday morning saying that that afternoon they would be releasing a very important announcement later that afternoon. That important announcement released later that day that day was a pretty significant one for the Unites States, declaring carbon dioxide a threat to both public health and the environment. According to the EPA’s website, “the Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act,” the endangerment finding and the cause or contribute finding. Under the endangerment finding EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that carbon dioxide along with five other greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxides, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexaflouride, are a threat to the health of the public, both presently and in the future. The second finding was one that actually pointed out an exact cause of the greenhouse gases: vehicles. Obvious to some, but the EPA found that new vehicles put an amount of those greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere.

We sat in our daily IEP class meeting at our hotel Monday night, as Rick Otis, our extra advisor on the trip and former EPA employee, told us that he heard the EPA was making a huge announcement. (Don’t get confused. I say the Monday night because there is a time change. Don’t forget about the time change.) His note was followed by at least three other students chiming in that they heard the same. We all had an idea of what that announcement would bring, but were anxious to actually hear the result from Jackson.

[It's funny. We all come to the conference together every morning, yet the days are filled with so many big plenary sessions, side events, and booths that we find ourselves passing each other on the fly, running to the next interesting session. We get two big 10-page long packets at the start of every day detailing all the sessions going on. Necessary? Yes. Wasteful. Absolutely. I kind of wonder how big of a carbon footprint this conference is actually making. That's some research for another day.]

But let’s get back to the EPA. This means big things for the United States. Though not a binding requirement, this means that because greenhouse gases are now a part of the Clean Air Act, that is one more step forward for completing their standards for light-duty vehicle emissions.  Nice work EPA.

Now, what was I doing at this conference again? O yes, hoping desperately for a binding agreement from our nations. This EPA ruling is definitely a positive step for the U.S., but what we need now to see is an actual solid commitment from our government here at Copenhagen. And that doesn’t just mean reducing our emissions immensely, but also making sure that the nations of our planet, every nation not just the industrialized ones, are getting their fair shot at survival.