October 15, 2011

EPA's CO2 Endangerment Finding is Endangered

By S. Fred Singer
In a narrow 5-4 decision in 2007, the US Supreme Court authorized the EPA to consider the greenhouse gas CO2 as a 'pollutant' under the terms of the Clean Air Act -- provided EPA could demonstrate that CO2 posed a threat to human health and welfare.  (CO2 is a colorless gas, non-toxic and non-irritating, and a natural constituent of the atmosphere.  In the geological past, CO2 levels have undergone wide variations -- from as low as one half up to twenty times the present level.) The EPA then issued an Endangerment Finding (EF) in 2009, which was promptly challenged in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.  One of the challenges came from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP).   We questioned both the procedure and the validity of the underlying science used by the EPA, as embodied in their TSD (Technical Support Document). As my CEI colleague Marlo Lewis relates, the EPA's Inspector General (IG) released...(Read Full Article)