AGC Urges EPA Not To Issue Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse Gases Under Clean Air Act

AGC urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to not issue a final endangerment finding that current concentrations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere endanger public health and welfare and that new motor vehicles (and engines) contribute to this endangerment.  An endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act (CAA) would open the door for EPA to control GHG emissions under the Act.  AGC took the opportunity in this comment period to resubmit its November 26, 2008 comment letter to the agency regarding its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for regulating GHG emissions under the CAA.  In that letter, AGC maintained that the CAA is the wrong tool to regulate GHG emissions and identified several onerous regulatory programs in the Act that would be triggered should EPA regulate GHG emissions under any section of the Act.  In its June 23 comment letter on the proposed endangerment finding, AGC argued that the disastrous implications of regulating GHG emissions under the CAA would provide EPA with a "reasonable explanation as to why it will not exercise its discretion to determine whether GHGs contribute to climate change."  The Supreme Court ruling, which charged EPA to reevaluate its decision not to regulate GHGs, did not go so far as to require EPA to make an endangerment finding determination.  AGC also urged the agency to postpone its regulatory efforts in light of the fact that legislators are actively working to address GHG emissions.  EPA should allow Congress to act with policy specific to GHGs, instead of trying to force the CAA to address a pollutant that it was not intended to control. To read AGC's June 23 comment letter on the proposed endangerment finding, click here. For background information on the proposed endangerment finding, click here.   For background on the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and AGC's November 2008 comment letter, click here.   For additional information, contact Melinda Tomaino at (703) 837-5415 or tomainom@agc.org.