WASHINGTON — Cars, power plants and factories soon could face much tougher pollution limits.
The government took a major step in that direction Friday, concluding that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases “endanger public health and welfare” under federal clean air laws, help cause climate change and pose an enormous threat “in both magnitude and probability.”
It is the first time the federal government has said it is ready to use the Clean Air Act to require power plants, cars and trucks to curtail their release of climate- changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the science pointing to man-made pollution as a cause of global warming is “compelling and overwhelming.” It said tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson cautioned that regulations are not imminent and made clear that the Obama administration would prefer Congress address the climate issue through a broader “cap-and- trade” program that would limit heat-trapping pollution.
But she said it was clear from the EPA analysis “that greenhouse-gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations” and steps are needed to curtail the impact.
Even if actual regulations are not imminent, the EPA action was seen as likely to encourage action on Capitol Hill.
It’s “a wake-up call for Congress” — deal with it directly through legislation or let the EPA regulate, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate committee dealing with climate legislation.
Republicans and some centrist Democrats have been critical of proposed cap-and-trade climate legislation, arguing it would lead to much higher energy prices. Such a measure could impose an economy-wide limit on greenhouse-gas emissions but let individual companies or plants trade emission allowances among one another to mitigate costs.
Reaction from energy-intensive industries was quick and critical. “The proposed endangerment finding poses an endangerment to the American economy and every American family,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.
The Bush administration opposed using the Clean Air Act to address climate change and stalled on producing the so-called endangerment finding that had been ordered by the Supreme Court two years ago when it declared greenhouse gases pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
The court case, brought by Massachusetts, focused only on emissions from automobiles. But it is widely assumed that if the EPA must regulate emissions from cars and trucks, it will have to control pollution from power plants and industrial sources.
