EPA AWARDS GOLD MEDALS TO CLEAN AIR ACT SETTLEMENT LITIGATION TEAM
EPA's Richard Killian, Donna Mastro and Doug Snyder received gold medals from
EPA Headquarters at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. on May 20, for
their nearly ten year effort in the investigation, litigation and settlement of
the largest environmental case in history. The outcome of the case against
American Electric Power significantly reduced the level of air pollution in
many states, (including Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia). Eight
states, a dozen environmental groups and the EPA brought the lawsuit against AEP
in 1999, accusing the energy company of rebuilding coal-fired power plants
without installing pollution controls as required under the Clean Air Act.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Carbon Pollution Regulation in U.S. Moving Ahead With EPA Rules
By Jim Efstathiou Jr., www.bloomberg.com
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after seven
years of declining to regulate carbon- dioxide emissions under President
_George W. Bush_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=George+W.+Bush&site=wnews&client=wnews…
getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , is taking its first steps to control the
main gas blamed for global warming.
Ordered to act by the U.S. Supreme Court, the EPA will begin developing
limits on greenhouse gases emitted by power plants, vehicles and large
manufacturers. In April 2007, the U.S. high court ruled that carbon dioxide is a
pollutant subject to government regulation.
Next week, the EPA will formally seek public and industry comment on how the
U.S. should respond to the court ruling, the first step in developing new
rules, agency spokesman _Timothy Lyons_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Timothy
Lyons&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8
&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) said in a June 17
interview. While new gas limits aren't likely to emerge during the Bush
administration, utility and refinery lobbyists say they see the EPA action as a
prelude to setting caps on carbon emissions.
``Anybody that wants to build anything is extremely concerned with what EPA
may do in regulating global greenhouse gases,'' said _Scott Segal_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Scott+Segal&site=wnews&client=wnews&pr…
wnews&outpu
t=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , a partner in the Washington law offices of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP
who represents energy companies.
The EPA will give industry 90 days to respond to the landmark Supreme Court
ruling, according to a draft of the public comment notice obtained by
Bloomberg. Offering industry time to comment will slow down rule-setting process,
environmental groups say.
The request for comment amounts to ``a step back from regulation,'' _David
Bookbinder_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=David+Bookbinder&site=wnews&client=wne…
etfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , chief climate counsel for the _Sierra
Club_ (http://www.sierraclub.org/) , said in an interview June 19. ``The
industry will put in 10,000 pages of stuff each on this. It will take years to go
through the information.''
Industry Conversations
_Michael McKenna_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Michael+McKenna&site=wnews&client=wnew…
lter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , president of the Washington
consulting firm MRW Strategies, a lobbyist for Southern Co., a utility that is the
second largest U.S. coal burner, declined to speculate on what form
regulation might take. Utilities collectively are the world's biggest industrial
producers of gases that create the warming, greenhouse effect.
Power companies are ``starting to have some relatively serious conversations
with career staff at EPA,'' McKenna said in a June 16 interview. Southern is
based in Atlanta.
The likelihood that the U.S. will set emission limits for utilities and
refiners such as Southern and San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp., as well as
automakers, will increase after January when EPA Administrator _Stephen Johnson_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Stephen+Johnson&site=wnews&client=wnew…
tylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&s
ort=date:D:S:d1) and other political appointees will be replaced by a new
president. That's because both Senators _John McCain_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=John+McCain&site=wnews&client=wnews&pr…
xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) and
_Barack Obama_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Barack+Obama&site=wnews&client=wnews&p…
getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) say a climate-change law will be a
priority if they become president.
`Environmental Threat'
``You can almost guarantee one of the first acts of the new president is to
declare that global warming is an environmental threat,'' _Frank O'Donnell_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Frank+O'Donnell&site=wnews&client=…
&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=
wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , president of _Clean Air Watch_
(http://www.cleanairwatch.org/) , said in a June 12 interview. ``That will set in motion
administrative attempts to reduce carbon dioxide.''
In Europe, a potential model for a U.S. pollution plan, 11,000 power plants
and factories must buy permits to emit carbon if they exceed their government
allowance. A 2008 permit to release one ton of CO2 cost 27.64 euros ($42.83)
yesterday, on the European Climate Exchange in London. U.S. utilities spew
about 2.3 billion tons a year into the skies.
Every hour, fossil-fuel combustion generates 3.5 million tons of emissions
worldwide, helping create a warming effect that ``already threatens our
climate,'' the Paris-based International Energy Agency said in a June 6 report. The
IEA, the energy adviser to 27 oil-consuming nations, said inaction may allow
global temperatures to climb by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit)
by the year 2100.
`Very Substantial'
``In the end, a final rule will lead to something very substantial and
address greenhouse gas emissions and perhaps a regulatory framework,'' Lyons, the
EPA spokesman said from his office in Washington.
The EPA's request for comment will delay actual regulations, said _David
Doniger_
(http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=David+Doniger&site=wnews&client=wnews&…
=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) , policy director at the New York-based Natural
Resources Defense Council, in a June 12 telephone interview.
The Supreme Court's ruling last year said the EPA needed to determine whether
carbon dioxide is a harmful pollutant as defined by 1963 Clean Air Act.
Congress failed this month in its first bid to promote laws to control CO2
from electricity plants and factories. Their debate exposed partisan divides
over global-warming measures and tensions within the Democratic Party between
advocates of regulation and lawmakers from states that mine coal, the dirtiest
fuel for power plants.
The EPA already used the Clean Air Act, amended in 1990, to control the
release of sulfur dioxide, called acid rain, from power plants through emissions
trading. That is the closest model the U.S. has for a possible cap-and-trade
system for carbon dioxide. Obama and McCain both have said they would support
a cap and trade approach.
Last Updated: June 20, 2008 00:01 EDT
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