Just when you thought it couldn't get more cynical, the Bush Administration has once again found a way to skirt legal and growing public demands to regulate greenhouse gases.
Almost one year ago, the Supreme Court handed the Bush Administration a stunning setback in ruling that greenhouse gases are indeed a pollutant. It ordered the EPA to study whether they cause global warming and therefore human harm. If so, the EPA should regulate them under the federal Clean Air Act.
Last week, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson told Congress that he has shelved his agency's own findings that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public. Instead, he will initiate "a lengthy public debate" in order to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. In other words, Bush is passing the buck to the next administration.
Reaction was swift. Read after the jump.
"This is a transparent delaying tactic and a major reversal of the EPA's position," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills). "The Bush administration is recklessly abandoning its responsibility to address the global warming crisis."
"It's outrageous," said Sierra Club attorney David Bookbinder, who said he would ask the Supreme Court next week to order the EPA to act within 60 days.
Actually, the whole business is just pathetic. Given that the Supreme Court ruling was a slap in the face to the corporate interests that put Bush in the White House, one would expect some innovative framework for regulating greenhouse gases which would balance those corporate interests with public health. Instead, the White House is opting out of legal and moral responsibility.
