EPA edges closer to carbon endangerment finding

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inching closer to an endangerment finding that will enable it to regulate carbon emissions in the US, after the Office of Management and Budget this week approved a proposal from the Agency that would allow it to regulate carbon emissions as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

According to reports, the endangerment finding – which would revolutionise the way greenhouse gases are regulated in the US and could open the door for many legal cases against heavy emitters – could be officially announced within the next few days.

However, it remains unclear how the finding would be reconciled with draft legislation currently working its way through Congress that aims to regulate emissions through a nationwide cap-and-trade system.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, drafted by Henry Waxman and Edward Markey and launched last month, would impose a cap-and-trade system in the US, but would also prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Congress is likely to be caught in a race to pass the legislation, which would directly address the carbon emissions problem using market dynamics, rather than accept regulations from the EPA, which essentially adapt existing legislation to new ends.

The EPA was forced to consider the possibility of regulating carbon dioxide emissions following a 2007 lawsuit filed against it by the State of Massachusetts. That case, which Massachusetts won, set a precedent by classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant and forcing the EPA to consider whether or not it should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

The forthcoming endangerment finding will be the culmination of years' worth of work by environmental groups to get the EPA to regulate the gas, following y ears of stalling from the Bush administration which argued that the Clean Air Act should not be used to tackle carbon emissions.

Upon taking office, President Obama instructed the EPA to reach a conclusion on the Endangerment Finding, which if adopted could result in additional regulatory barriers to public sector and commercial projects based on their emissions profiles.