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Washington—Ranking Member Frank Lucas issued April 17 the following statement in response to the announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the agency will begin the process to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases under the Clean Air Act:
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The frequency with which the Environmental Protection Agency is sued would lead one to believe that the agency spends more time grappling with lawsuits than saving the environment. Just last week the EPA was sued for curbing the states’ power to enforce more stringent monitoring of the emission levels (not to mention the slew of court cases before that). And now it finds itself on the receiving end of yet another lawsuit.
Twelve states spearheaded by Andrew Cuomo, the NY Attorney General have taken EPA to the court for flouting the Clean Air Act by not not stipulating standards to regulate the emissions of oil refineries.
Cuomo said:
“The EPA’s refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush Administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming..”
The fact that oil refineries emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases underlines the importance of setting CO2-slashing regulations. Let’s hope the court recognizes that and compels EPA to take corrective action.
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A United States Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected an EPA rule that prevented states from establishing stricter emissions monitoring systems for high polluting industries such as oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and the like.
In 1990, the Clean Air Act was modified to limit the emissions of big industrial polluters by requiring them to procure state issued pollution permits. Furthermore, states were allowed to tighten Federal monitoring requirements to ensure adherence to the set pollution levels.
In 2006, however, EPA introduced new rules that prevented states from resorting to stricter monitoring of emission levels. Since the new EPA rule made it difficult to come up with clear and transparent data pertaining to emission levels, it triggered opposition from environmental groups that culminated in a lawsuit.
The court reached its decision on Tuesday, which was in favor of the environmental groups. Keri Powell of Earthjustice, who fought the case on behalf of the greens said :
“This is a huge victory for everyone who breathes…We can’t have strong enforcement of our clean air laws unless we know what polluters are putting into the air.”
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