The administration of US President George W. Bush has made clear it is postponing any regulatory action on greenhouse gas emissions believed to be responsible for global warming, citing “the complexity and magnitude” of the issue.
The decision follows last year’s ruling by the US Supreme Court, which said that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must devise ways to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.
But the EPA said in a 588-page report released on Friday that given “the complexity and magnitude of the question” there were doubts whether “greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act.”
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said that rather than attempt to forge a consensus “on matters of great complexity, controversy and active legislative debate,” he had decided to publish the views of other agencies and to seek comment on them during a 120-day review period.
The delay, observers have said, means that any substantive regulatory action will be almost certainly left to the next administration.
“One point is clear: The potential regulation of greenhouse gases under any portion of the Clean Air Act could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land,” Johnson wrote.
In a political blow to Bush, the Supreme Court ruled in April last year that the EPA must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants and deal with them.
The ruling came in response to legal action undertaken by Massachusetts and a dozen other states and environmental groups that went to court to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.
The Bush administration has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding emissions limits on the country’s industry and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
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