GHG Endangerment Finding Sent to White House

Apparently, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Reuters today that she had sent the final version of EPA's endangerment finding for greenhouse gases to the White House on Friday. The Reuters article can be read here. (The proposed version of the finding, released last April, can be read here.)

Other news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, are reporting the story. But the current version of the finding and the accompanying letter are not yet available on the EPA or White House web sites.

The endangerment finding was made under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act, part of its mobile source (vehicle) provisions, and is the ultimate result of the Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. This pertains only to mobile sources, and, by its terms (as proposed in April) will not immediately be followed by regulations governing vehicle emissions of GHGs.

That said, a final endangerment finding will give environmentalists a strong legal case that the EPA must now issue regulations governing vehicle emissions of GHGs. EPA has also signaled that it would have to make a similar endangerment finding and issue regulations for emissions of GHGs from stationary sources, including power plants. Some (though not all) in the environmental community are eager to see EPA action via the PSD provisions of the Act, though industry supporters have warned that such a finding for stationary sources would virtually shut down the economy.

If EPA issues regulations governing vehicle emissions of GHGs, environmental litigators will be able to make a slam-dunk argument that GHG's are regulated by the Clean Air Act, and thus subject to the Act's "best available control technology" (BACT) provisions. (This is an argument they have been advancing for some time in their battle against coal-fired power plants, but is weakened by the fact that no actual regulations of GHGs have been issued under the Act. Three weeks ago, the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) issued an order, In the Matter of BP Products North America (EAB, October 16, 2009) in which it explained that "at this time EPA continues to construe" BACT to cover only those pollutants "subject to either a provision in the Clean Air Act or a regulation adopted by EPA under the Clean Air Act that requires actual control of emissions of that pollutant.")

The White House has 90 days to act, but Administrator Jackson told Reuters that she expects an expedited review. This move will put additional pressure on the Senate to continue to move forward with climate change legislation, and may also help show the world, in advance of next month's climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, that the U.S. is moving forward to regulate greenhouse gases.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Update: The Washington Post is reporting the story now, and confirms that the finding has not been released publicly. They obtained a statement from the National Association of Manufacturers that they are concerned that EPA is moving forward before Congress has a chance to pass its own bill (confirming that this may well be designed to place pressure on Congress, since you can be assured that NAM is calling on its connections in the Senate right now.) And they obtained a statement from environmentalists that they think that the Administration is doing this to avoid going to Copenhagen "empty handed." The full article, which reflects some great last-minute reporting by Juliet Eilperin, can be read here.

The Denver Science News Examiner is reporting the story here (and its being reprinted in the Washington D.C. Examiner, so being read for free by D.C. Metro commuters on their way to work this morning.) And BNET is reporting the story, describing the move as "Climate Bill Stimulus."