Reading the news every day it appears the United States keeps moving one step closer to some form of mandatory greenhouse gas regulation.
Last week the EPA issued a proposed finding that greenhouse gases are contributors of air pollution that in turn endangers the public health or welfare. In asking an associate of mine what he thought about this announcement, he said, “So what’s the big deal? I could have told you that without having to perform a major study.”
To understand why it is a big deal you really have to go back to 1963 when the U.S. passed the original Clean Air Act of 1963 to clean up air pollution. That act merely instantiated a fund to perform a study on air pollution and to pay for some of the cleanup efforts.
Then in 1970 came a stronger Clean Air Act and the creation of the EPA and its primary role to carry out the law to ensure the reduction of air pollution across the United States.
However over the years it had been difficult for the EPA to actually penalize a company if they were in violation of the Clean Air Act. For every little thing the agency had to go to court, which was certainly not a viable option that would scale. Then in 1990 there were new amendments to the Act that strengthened the EPA’s power to include civil and criminal sanctions including financial penalties.
In 2007 the Supreme Court ordered a scientific review on the effects of greenhouse gases. The EPA’s proposed finding last week was the output of that order.
Given the EPA’s charter and ability to put in place sanctions and financial penalties that it sees fit to reduce air pollution, it now is in a very interesting position. The EPA could decide to put in place any type of regulation it felt was necessary to address the problem, and it wouldn’t need any sort of congressional approval to do so. If this were to happen, depending on how strict the regulation it could have a very significant impact on organizations around the country.
As it stands now, the EPA has indicated that they would prefer to see comprehensive legislation put in place to deal with this. However, if that seems to get stalled in Congress don’t be surprised to see the EPA act.
Many high emitting corporations have the fear of the unknown, which is why they are actually promoting legislation. This way they can at least have a chance to help shape it.
One thing looks to be for sure…Carbon Regulation in the U.S. is coming and it will have an impact on many organizations. To my associate who asked the question…That my friend is the big deal.
Terrence G. Clark - Senior Vice President and GM
CA ecoSoftware
mailto:terrence.clark@ca.com