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EPA formally declares a pox on excess greenhouse gas emissions

By | April 18, 2009, 2:11pm PDT

Summary: I’m surprised Harry Fuller hasn’t blogged about this one, yet, but perhaps he is in the great outdoors today. Because I’m not a reporter in Washington, I figured the most useful thing for me to do is create a mini-table-of-contents to some of the coverage of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling Friday that excessive greenhouse [...]

I’m surprised Harry Fuller hasn’t blogged about this one, yet, but perhaps he is in the great outdoors today.

Because I’m not a reporter in Washington, I figured the most useful thing for me to do is create a mini-table-of-contents to some of the coverage of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling Friday that excessive greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health. This may seem like a “well, duh” kind of finding, but the real news is what will happen because of this ruling, which could inspire a new wave of regulations and emissions cap legislation. This is must-reading for anyone who is responsible for green or sustainable initiatives of any sort within their company.

Here are some of the most thorough articles on the ruling.

EPA Clears Way for Greenhouse Gas Rules (The New York Times)

EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Mandate Causes Both Joy and Concern (ABC News)

and the more extreme …

EPA’s CO2 Finding: Putting a Gun to Congress’ Head (Time)

Let the political posturing begin.

If you want the unfiltered skinny on the ruling, here’s the page with the background about the Supreme Court that spurred this declaration in the first place as well as public hearing information.

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Greenhouse Gas Emission, Greenhouse Gas, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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Cost Vs Benefits
MrAlan 20th Apr 2009
Talk about a touchy subject. Regulating CO2 will increase energy prices for the consumer for sure.

Just an example, CO2 mitigation in coal power plants can increase the cost of producing energy 30% (for 20% or so removal) while 90%+ removal gets into the 100-200% cost increase using existing ammonia removal technologies not to mention increased demand and thus price for coal because the more CO2 you remove, the more coal you have to burn to power the CO2 removal.

This could be crippling in the short-run for poor to middle class families, but the long-term benefits could be good for the American economy and security.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Government OUT of control
Christian_<>< 18th Apr 2009
Tea Parties are happening everywhere, I am sure
the new dictator will be mandating all kinds of
new communist laws.

It will take a total crash of the country for
people to realize this is not the 'change' or the
CHAINS they need.....

0 Votes
+ -
Fox AstroTurf
epcraig 18th Apr 2009
Teabaggers appear to be reluctant to come out for ridicule. At least not more than the sparse numbers covered by Fox.
Fox promoted coverage of this event, despite repeated announcements they weren't promoting the event while promoting their coverage.
0 Votes
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"Sparse numbers?"
Dorkyman 18th Apr 2009
Overall the media estimates 250,000 tea participants.

Give 'em a chance. The Revolution is coming.
0 Votes
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Oboma is not a messiah.....
Christian_<>< 18th Apr 2009
Good luck, only an idiot buys the socialist agenda
and idiotic climate change aka Global Warming
BS spewing from liberal hypocrites.

The 'resident' in the white has not proven he is
even a citizen, there has never been so much dissent
with someone in the White House, he is not president
he is a 'resident'...
0 Votes
+ -
The government is out of control on 'Global Warming'
Lerianis 18th Apr 2009
Which is a farce of the greatest measure, at least Man-made Global Warming. The fact is that all of the SMALL bit of Global Warming that is happening has been linked to one thing..... that rises in the morning and sets in the evening...... got any idea what it is yet? THE SUN! (Sing it with me!)

The Sun is the ONLY thing that they can link global warming to, and really..... how do we know that this 'warming trend' isn't normal? I mean, we have records going back ONLY 100 years, at most, for temperatures..... that isn't enough time, considering the earth is BILLIONS of years old, to come to any conclusions!

The only thing MMGL is? A farce, meant to 'fear' people into cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions by not having any life outside of going back and forth to work.... it's the WET DREAM of the people out there who want to control other people's lives!

Now, cutting down on greenhouses gases IS a laudable thing..... but don't try to fear people into cutting down on them, and realize that..... it's really going to have to be the automobile, 18 wheeler, etc. makers who take care of this, by putting HARSH government mandates on them.

Regular people? Uh uh.... they cannot do JACK as long as wasteful machines are on the market.
0 Votes
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Best get to Montana
epcraig 18th Apr 2009
You want to see the glaciers in Glacier Park before they disappear in ten or twelve years.
But that's not Global Warming, merely climate change, no?
0 Votes
+ -
Yes, it is climate change
Lerianis 19th Apr 2009
And the fact is that climate changes a LOT in short periods on this planet.... and it's nothing to get overly concerned about.

Oh, and while the dinosaurs were around..... no glaciers in Montana either. In fact, the only thing the glaciers there are is the last remnant of the Ice Age..... which was over millenia ago, and therefore the last vestiges of it SHOULD be disappearing from this planet.
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It may be the global warming that's out of control
Reality-based 18th Apr 2009
As long as it's easier to find evidence that it's happening than evidence that it's not, then I'll believe the evidence. What evidence do you have that it's the sun's fault?

100 years of records? Consider the Wilkins ice shelf, broken up this month (April 2009).
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMD07EH1TF_index_0.html
I think it's been recorded at least since Wilkins named it in the 1830's, and it took a few thousand years to build it up.
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Total crap science....
Christian_<>< 18th Apr 2009
This is nothing more than control, liberals
hate the fact that americans can move about
freely.

Total BS and lies to extort money from breathing.

Good grief, I hope you people who voted for the
control socialist from Kenya enjoy taxes.
0 Votes
+ -
He is not from Kenya
Lerianis 19th Apr 2009
And you are DENIGRATING your arguments by saying that he is. Oh, and by the way: I am an Extreme liberal, but I don't buy into the global warming bunk.
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So what if it took a few thousand years to build it up
Lerianis 19th Apr 2009
That actually SUPPORTS my argument that the Earth is coming out of a cycle of cool weather and going into a cycle of WARMER weather.

Little problem with that thing as well: he never took not of how thick the ice was, whether it was melting, etc.

If he had, I bet that we would have INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE that mankind is NOT the cause of those ice shelves disappearing, but that big ball of plasma in the sky called the Sun.

Oh, and as to how do I know it's the Sun's fault? It's the only REASONABLE explanation. Even the Army Corp of Engineers has come out during CLINTON'S administration, and said that "Yes, the earth is warming.... but the only constant in this is the Sun!"
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Junk science
sgtgary@... 18th Apr 2009
Next the government is going to completely ban the only gas that every living animal exhales and that every plant needs for life.

This junk science is completely about the flow of money. ANOTHER waste of my taxpayer dollars to the most wasteful government on the planet!
0 Votes
+ -
Agree totally
Lerianis 19th Apr 2009
We do not know how much CO2 the world can handle at all, and it is totally necessary for plants to survive on this planet.

To be honest, they keep on pointing at the 'warming in the summer'..... uh, the temperatures in my area (Aberdeen, Maryland) haven't really changed in the summer since 1960!

100+ temperatures were and are NOTHING uncommon in the peak of the summer, so I think that 'global warming' is a manipulation of data on the part of enviroloonies to frighten the stupid out there.
0 Votes
+ -
Cost Vs Benefits
MrAlan 20th Apr 2009
Talk about a touchy subject. Regulating CO2 will increase energy prices for the consumer for sure.

Just an example, CO2 mitigation in coal power plants can increase the cost of producing energy 30% (for 20% or so removal) while 90%+ removal gets into the 100-200% cost increase using existing ammonia removal technologies not to mention increased demand and thus price for coal because the more CO2 you remove, the more coal you have to burn to power the CO2 removal.

This could be crippling in the short-run for poor to middle class families, but the long-term benefits could be good for the American economy and security.

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