Amending The Clean Air Act One Remedy In Climate Debate

摘要

The Supreme Court decision of April 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA requires the Environmental Protection Agency to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant under section 202 of the Clean Air Act or explain why it should not do so. An interesting dynamic developed with the release in July of the EPA's draft advance notice of proposed rule making. The document of more than 500 pages was first sent to the Office of Management and Budget, which refused to open it. It is said to be the work of the EPA staff, and not the policy of the administration. It carries critical comments from all the executive departments affected by the proposed rule making. It clearly is an attempt by the EPA staff to put into effect an ambitious control program-one that would have disastrous consequences for the U.S. economy.