As we retweeted last night, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it won’t start regulating carbon emissions and of other greenhouse gases as part of its recently issued “endangerment finding” until 2011. We’ve posted a copy of the original letter below the fold.
In a letter to Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA) and seven other Democrats from coal producing states, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson writes:
Based on the anticipated actions, I expect that EPA will phase-in permit requirements and regulations of greenhouse gases for large stationary sources beginning in calendar year 2011.
As part of the Jackson timeline, companies already applying for Clean Air Act permits will have to start addressing greenhouse gas emissions in their permits during the first half of 2011. That move that would impact 400 plants, Jackson writes.
In her letter, Jackson says that small businesses impacted by the ruling would not have to comply with EPA regulations until 2016. She writes:
In any event, EPA does not intend to subject the smallest sources of Clean Air Act for greenhouse gas emissions any sooner than 2016.
Jackson addressed attempts to derail the EPA’s regulatory gauntlet, including Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) recent introduction of a “resolution of disapproval” of the agency’s attempts to cut emissions of carbon and greenhouse gases.
She said passage of the Murkowski amendment would “be viewed by many as a vote to move the United States to a position behind that of China on the issue of climate change, and more in line with the position of Saudi Arabia.”
For a complete overview of Administrator Jackson’s letter and her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday, read Solve Climate’s good analysis.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s letter to Senator Jay Rockefeller