"To understand the endangerment finding, we need to rewind the clock to the Clean Air Act, the landmark 1970 law that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air pollutants. The act was originally used to target pollutants such as sulfur oxides and particulate matter, but it was intentionally written broadly so that Congress wouldn't have to revisit the it every time a new pollutant emerged, said Camille Pannu, associate clinical professor of law at Columba Law School, to Scientific American last year."
"In 1999 a group of environmental organizations and eventually states began petitioning the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Eventually, the Supreme Court decided in the 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and six other greenhouse gases qualified as air pollutants under Clean Air Act. The EPA was required to determine whether or not emissions from cars and trucks would endanger public health or if the science was too uncertain."
The Clean Air Act of 1970 grants the Environmental Protection Agency authority to regulate air pollutants and was written broadly to cover new pollutants. Beginning in 1999, environmental groups and some states petitioned the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, and the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007) that carbon dioxide and six other greenhouse gases qualify as air pollutants. The EPA assessed whether vehicle emissions endanger public health and welfare, and in 2009 issued an endangerment finding that greenhouse gases threaten current and future generations and underpinned subsequent regulations. Revoking that finding removes the legal foundation for many greenhouse-gas regulations and threatens higher emissions, public-health harms, and increased fuel costs.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]