U.S. Denies Petitions Challenging Climate Science
July 29, 2010, 4:53 PM EDTBy John Hughes and Jim Efstathiou Jr.
(Updates with comment from group in eighth paragraph.)
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration rejected challenges to its finding last year that climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases is a danger to public health.
The Environmental Protection Agency found that 10 petitions contesting the decision as flawed “provide no evidence to undermine our determination,” Administrator Lisa Jackson said today in a statement. Industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have said the EPA’s carbon rules will be a drag on the economy.
The agency’s action removes a potential obstacle barring the U.S. from regulating carbon-dioxide emissions from cars, trucks, power plants, oil refineries and factories under the Clean Air Act. Congress has failed to pass legislation to limit carbon emissions that would mandate pollution cuts by statute.
“Defenders of the status quo will try to slow our efforts to get America running on clean energy,” Jackson said in a statement. “A better solution would be to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation.”
Groups such as the Chamber, Pacific Legal Foundation and Southeastern Legal Foundation asked the EPA to reconsider its decision, announced Dec. 7, saying the finding was flawed or that the agency erred in evaluating scientific evidence, according to the EPA denial.
The America Petroleum Institute, which represents oil companies, in December said the EPA rules will be “inefficient and excessively costly.” The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, said the proposed rules are based on “selective science.” Both groups are based in Washington.
‘Bad Science’
“EPA’s denial was unwarranted and flies in the face of thousands of pages of evidence showing that the finding was based on bad science,” Ted Hadzi-Antich, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “Even worse, EPA refused to allow its Science Advisory Board to review the scientific evidence, casting a shadow over the entire regulatory proceeding.”
Opponents of the decision cited unauthorized release of e- mails at the U.K.’s University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in November as proof of a conspiracy to manipulate global temperature data, the EPA said. Earlier this month, the most recent of three investigations of the matter, known as climategate, found that while the honesty and rigor of the scientists weren’t in doubt, they may used poor judgment in actions such as deleting e-mails to avoid disclosure.
‘Candid Discussion’
An EPA probe found that the leak revealed only “a candid discussion of scientists.” Hundreds of e-mails stolen from the university’s computers in November sparked criticism from global-warming skeptics including U.S. Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, who said they provided evidence of data being manipulated.
“EPA could have chosen to have an open, transparent process to look at the implications of climategate,” Inhofe said today in a statement. “But EPA chose instead to dismiss legitimate concerns about data quality, transparency, and billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded science as products of ‘conspiracies.’”
--Editors: Steve Geimann, Larry Liebert
To contact the reporters on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net; Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at liebert@bloomberg.net.
