President Barack Obama's climate czar said Sunday the
Environmental Protection Agency will soon issue a rule on the
regulation of carbon dioxide, finding that it represents a danger
to the public.
The White House is pressing Congress to draft and pass
legislation that would cut greenhouse gases by 80% of 1990 levels
by 2050, threatening to use authority under the Clean Air Act if
legislators don't move fast enough or create strong enough
provisions.
Carol Browner, Obama's special advisor on climate change and
energy, also said the administration is seeking to establish a
national standard for auto emissions that could mean tougher
efficiency mandates for auto makers. The new standard could be
fashioned after strict proposals developed in California that would
limit greenhouse gas emissions - initiatives that car makers have
vigorously fought.
The comments - the first by the administration on the topic -
could lead to another blow for beleaguered car companies such as
General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) that are already tottering.
"EPA's going to look at Mass. Vs. EPA and will make an
endangerment finding," Browner told Dow Jones Newswires in an
interview. The Supreme Court ordered the EPA in the Mass. Vs. EPA
case to determine if carbon dioxide endangered public health or
welfare.
"The next step is a notice of proposed rulemaking" for new
regulations on CO2 emissions, Browner said on the sidelines of the
National Governors Association meeting, one of her first public
appearances since the inauguration.
Browner declined to say exactly when the EPA would issue the
finding or rulemaking, but EPA chief Lisa Jackson has indicated it
could be on April 2, the anniversary of Mass Vs. EPA. Obama EPA
chief Lisa Jackson said earlier in the month that her office would
soon begin drafting rules for regulating CO2. The agency has been
intensely reviewing and updating an existing endangerment finding
made last year by agency officials - but blocked by the previous
administration - that found carbon dioxide threatened human
welfare.
Officially recognizing that carbon dioxide is a danger to the
public would trigger regulation of the greenhouse gas emissions
from coal-fired power plants, refineries, chemical plants, cement
firms, vehicles and any other emitting sectors across the
economy.
Industry fears it could shut down the economy, not only
preventing plants from operating and spurring a dramatic retooling
of the energy sector but also pushing up costs and hurting the
international competitiveness for a raft of sectors.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, say action by the administration is
required by law and need to pressure lawmakers to act.
But Browner said the administration prefers that Congress draft
legislation rather than CO2 to be regulated under the Clean Air Act
because lawmakers could develop a bill that could more deftly
regulate the greenhouse gas through a cap-and-trade system.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he aims
to pass a climate change bill by the end of the summer, and Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif., head of the panel responsible for drafting
a CO2 bill, said he wanted a bill approved by the Memorial Day
holiday in May.
Browner also declined to say what the administration's target
date for Congress to pass a climate bill before accelerating the
Clean Air Act rulemaking, but she called Waxman's schedule an
"aggressive" one.
"In the next several weeks we will begin to see the shape of
legislation...(and) we will work with Congress as they shape it,"
she later told a group of Western Governors.
The climate czar dismissed critics of fast, stringent climate
change laws who have said that the existing financial crisis would
only be exacerbated by putting a premium on emitting carbon
dioxide. She said businesses hoping to invest in CO2 mitigation
projects needed more certain policy signals to plow cash into
projects and companies, and that the rulemaking process would
create a buffer for action and compliance.
Critics of putting an expensive premium on carbon say that such
a schedule may be overly optimistic given the global financial
crisis and the ramifications that putting a cap on greenhouse gases
would have across nearly every sector of the economy. Tough action
too fast, they say, not only could curb manufacturing and create an
energy crisis by halting new power plant construction, but also
could force a rapid migration of businesses overseas to cheaper
energy climes.
Specifically, Obama wants an economy-wide law - instead of just
some major emitting sectors - and to auction off 100% of the
emission credits, which analysts say could exponentially increase
the cost of emitting, as well as the pay-off for low-carbon
projects.
Browner also said the administration had directed the EPA and
the Department of Transportation to develop a national policy for
auto emissions.
The DOT is currently developing new auto efficiency standards,
but the White House and the EPA are currently considering a request
from California to implement their own much stricter standards,
which consider greenhouse gas emissions rather than just fuel
efficiency and are likely to be followed in a more that a dozen
other states. The administration could seek to implement the
California standards or a negotiated version of them across the
country, however, Browner indicated.
"We need a unified national policy when it comes to clean
vehicles," Browner told the governors, adding that the Department
of Transportation and EPA needed to cooperate and determine the
impact of both conventional pollution and greenhouse gas emissions
and give auto makers the time and policy direction necessary to
re-tool their plants.
"Both agencies have to meet their responsibilities...we're just
trying to figure out how do you do it in a way that the car
companies have a clear (mandate)," Browner told reporters after the
event.
Car makers have expressed concern not only about the costs of
meeting the tough new standards, but also having to make cars that
have to meet two different mandates.
Separately, Browner said the administration was also going to
create an inter-agency task force to site a new national
electricity transmission grid to meet both growing demand and the
President's planned renewable energy expansion. Siting has been a
major bottleneck to renewable growth, and lawmakers and
administration officials have said they're likely to seek greater
federal powers that would give expanded eminent domain
authorities.
By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285;
ian.talley@dowjones.com