« Ind. Decisions - Transfer list for week ending July 11, 2008 | Main | Ind. Courts - Updating "Supreme Court issues emergency order re handling of forfeiture cases in Muncie" »
Friday, July 11, 2008
Environment - "Bush to partners: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'" [Updated]
Seriously. See the story from the LA Times ...
[Updated 7/12/08] "Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps " is the headline to this story today on the front-page of the NY Times, reported by Felicity Barringer. It begins:
Any major steps by the Bush administration to control air pollution or reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases came to a dead end on Friday, the combined result of a federal court ruling and a decision by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.In the morning, a federal appeals court struck down the cornerstone of the administration’s strategy to control industrial air pollution by agreeing with arguments by the utility industry that the E.P.A. had exceeded its authority when it established the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005. The court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said the rule, which set new requirements for major pollutants, had “fatal flaws.” [Note: See ILB entry in the ruling here.]
A few hours later, the E.P.A. chief rejected any obligation to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide under existing law, saying that to do so would involve an “unprecedented expansion” of the agency’s authority that would have “a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy,” touching “every household in the land.”
Taken together, the developments make it clear that any significant new effort to fight air pollution will fall to the next president.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 11, 2008 05:24 PM
Posted to Environment