The EPA GHG circus and Congress’ responsibilities

EPA Administrator Johnson threw another blazing bowling pin in the air today as he finalized his finding that California has no “compelling reason” to regulate greenhouse gases under a Clean Air Act waiver. Johnson’s work continues (un)official White House policy to delay any movement on addressing climate policy until the G.W. Bush Administration is safely out of office. Despite being essentially ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to address in some way carbon dioxide emissions, the EPA has found another way to stall such movement. Apparently the official decision directly quotes language from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which is sure to rile the already comical faux-aghast reaction from regulation proponents.

Our take is that while continued criticism of the White House on its eight-year climate stonewalling campaign is well-deserved, the EPA and the Clean Air Act are not the appropriate vehicles to address GHG regulation policy. Considering that GHG regulation will be felt economy- and nationwide and will represent a serious change to business as usual in the U.S. economic engine, the only proper authority to deal with the initial planning on GHG regulation is the U.S. Congress. Congress is the only leg of the three-legged Federal stool that broadly represents all of the diverse interests (geographic and otherwise) of the United States. Climate policy should not be initially set by a group of nine judges residing in Washington D.C. or a lame duck White House that is responsible to no broad set of stakeholders. Until Congress steps up to its responsibilities and gets serious about addressing climate policy, let’s not distract ourselves by using EPA as a scapegoat for inaction.