Free Republic

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.......... EPA claims it met all IQA [Information Quality Act] standards because the TSD [Technical Support Document], far from being a "highly influential scientific assessment," is not a "scientific assessment" at all. According to EPA, the TSD did not involve any weighing of data, information, or studies. Rather, the TSD simply summarizes assessments of other...

Environmentalists are backpedaling in their long march toward deindustrialization. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has offered to delay some of its plans to regulate so-called greenhouse gases. Republicans in Congress shouldn’t hesitate to press their advantage. The agency’s advance faltered last week with the announcement that it was willing to put off for three years new rules requiring biomass-fired boilers to obtain permits to emit carbon dioxide. This provides temporary financial relief to power plants that burn forest and agricultural products, wastewater treatment facilities, landfills and highly subsidized ethanol operations. Other restrictions announced Jan. 2 on coal-fired plants and oil...

The California agency famous for putting the squeeze on automotive tailpipe emissions is poised to tackle dirty indoor air. In a hefty report to the Legislature completed this month, the California Air Resources Board asserts that indoor air can be as polluted and dangerous to breathe as outdoor air, costing the state at least $45 billion a year in lost worker productivity, medical expenses and premature deaths. Yet, by and large, the government does little to stem indoor air pollutants, which come from sources as disparate as cigarettes, gas stoves and certain types of air purifiers. "Efforts to reduce indoor...