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Campaigners sue EPA over carbon emissions
November 29, 2012
Campaigners sue EPA over carbon emissions
Campaigners threatened to sue the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday in an effort to push back Barack Obama to make good on his re-election promise to act on climate change. The formal notice calls on the EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, to take immediate steps to begin regulating carbon emissions from cars, planes and off-road vehicles.
“Obviously it’s clear that we need to keep moving on climate change,” said Michael Livermore, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity, which is threatening the lawsuit.
Environmental groups have long complained that the agency was dragging out the process of setting rules on carbon. The EPA faces a number of other suits from environmental groups trying to push it into action.
Aside from environmental groups, the agency also faces far greater legal pressure from opponents of climate action ? including the states of Texas and Virginia and industry groups ? all trying to block the agency from regulating power plants and cars. A federal appeals court dismissed the industry law suits in June but industry groups are continuing to put pressure on the EPA.
The institute originally pressed EPA to regulate car and plane emissions in 2009. “More than three years have passed,” the formal notice to Jackson said on Wednesday. The notice said the EPA had a legal obligation to enforce the Clean Air Act. “Given the clear link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, EPA’s delay in acting and in responding to Policy Integrity’s petition is inconsistent with the agency’s legal requirements and scientific determinations.”
Read more at The Guardian.
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