States Waiting For Washington To Grab Climate Change Lead

摘要

So far, the states have been the political laboratory for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What will happen if the federal government grabs the regulatory lead has raised questions and concerns. Ann McCabe, Midwest regional director of the Midwest Greenhouse Gas Accord, predicts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will install a mandatory emissions reporting program in the next two years. "It remains to be determined whether state programs will be pre-empted or whether states will be allowed to go further if they want to," she says. "We now have a new administration, so I think it would want to take a look at that before it proposes anything." Congress already has taken several small steps. In HR 2764, the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, legislators directed EPA to publish a mandatory GHG reporting rule using authority granted by the Clean Air Act.