EPA set to deliver modest carbon crackdown

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to introduce further greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, but will not deliver cuts in emissions on the scale that would have been achieved had Congress approved plans for a dedicated climate change bill.

Citing an unnamed official at the agency, Reuters reported yesterday that the EPA is working on new policies to curb carbon emissions following last year's controversial ruling that allows the watchdog to regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act.

The agency has already introduced new standards designed to reduce emissions from cars and is working on additional standards for trucks. From next year large power plants and industrial facilities will also be required to obtain pollution permits and demonstrate that any upgrades use the cleanest technologies available.

The new rules face numerous legal challenges contesting the EPA's right to tackle emissions. However, the official signalled that the agency was already working on further rules to curb GHG emissions and other pollutants such as mercury.

In particular, the EPA is thought to be looking at regulations to tackle methane emissions, a GHG that is known to be about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson is scheduled to attend a meeting in Mexico next month which will investigate measures for tackling methane emissions from landfill and livestock and the agency is believed to be looking at various proposals for tackling the problem.

The EPA is seen as being critical to addressing GHG emissions in the US after the Senate ditched proposals for a national emissions trading scheme earlier this summer.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that he could not secure any Republican votes for the bill and as a result he is now working on watered-down proposals that do not include any carbon pricing mechanisms.

Consequently, the EPA is widely regarded as the only regulatory lever available to the administration as it looks to make good on president Obama's international pledge to cut GHG emissions by 17 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.

However, the anonymous EPA official told Reuters that the agency was unlikely to deliver emission cuts on a scale similar to the 17 per cent cuts that were proposed in the failed climate change bill.

"With legislation you almost certainly get more emissions reductions than you get with existing authorities," he said.