EPA's GHG endangerment finding sets stage for regulations
Oil & Gas Journal
Greenhouse gases threaten the public’s health and should be regulated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Dec. 7. GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat, it added.
“Today’s finding is based on decades of research by hundreds of researchers,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. “The vast body of evidence not only remains unassailable; it’s grown strong, and it points to one conclusion: Greenhouse gases from human activity are increasing at unprecedented rates and are adversely affecting our environment and threatening our health.”
The finding follows a study that EPA undertook after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that GHGs fit within the federal Clean Air Act’s definition of pollutants. It covers emissions of six gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride, according to Jackson.
It does not impose new requirements itself but allows the agency to finalize GHG standards proposed earlier this year as part of a joint rulemaking with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Jackson continued. On-road vehicles contribute more than 23% of total U.S. GHG emissions, and EPA’s proposed standards for light-duty vehicles, an on-road vehicle subset, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million tonnes and conserve 1.8 billion bbl of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-16 vehicles, Jackson said.
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