Bush turns down emissions limit, maintains bottom line

Despite a push from the Supreme Court and senior federal officials, President George W. Bush declined the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendation to lower the greenhouse gas emissions limit July 10. The move places the issue on the table for the next U.S. president that takes office.

Dismissing the recommendations of top climate experts and international scientists, he cited claims that a lower emissions limit will crush the U.S. economy. The EPA reversed a prior decision that found the present greenhouse gas emission level is a threat to human health and welfare, by publicizing an almost 600 page document. The EPA, instead, will seek additional public comments on the posed threat, despite an order from the Supreme Court requiring the EPA to decide.

Officials said a few senior White House officials were denying the EPA to state that global warming poses harm to humans, as the action will create widespread regulatory requirements under the Clean Air Act. Such action leads to increased costs for utilities, automakers and other economic stakeholders, according to the EPA.

EPA officials, on record with anonymity, said that White House officials directed the agency to alter numbers with the goal of diverting the "social cost of carbon," a regulatory term that indicates the bottom line burden of greenhouse gas emissions.
Bush appointees also barred the EPA from submitting a Technical Support Document on Benefits of Reducing GHG Emissions as part of the agency’s decision, according to EPA officials.

If the administration used the same amount of time fighting global warming as it spends on censoring global warming documents, the Earth would be in better condition, said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Markey’s staff reviewed a Dec. 5 EPA document in which his office remarked as unjustifiable.