Raleigh, NC—Environment North Carolina strongly criticized the Bush EPA’s announcement today that it will further delay action in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring the EPA to reconsider its 2003 decision not to regulate global warming emissions under the Clean Air Act.
“We are extremely disappointed by the Bush EPA’s failure to reduce the threat global warming poses to public health and welfare,” said Environment North Carolina Field Organizer Margaret Hartzell “The White House has censored, ignored, and rewritten the clear scientific and legal facts in order to delay the day of reckoning when the oil, auto, and coal industries are held accountable for their pollution. Now it’s up to the next Administration to right this wrong and finally start to tackle global warming with the many clean energy solutions that are at our fingertips,” she continued.
The decision announced today was heavily influenced by political operatives at the White House. New reports reveal that the White House rejected EPA’s conclusion last December that global warming endangers public welfare by refusing to open the email containing the legal document, leaving the issue in limbo for more than seven months.
In stark contrast to today’s “extremely watered-down” Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, EPA’s original December 5 document determined that global warming is “unequivocal,” that the evidence is both “compelling and robust” that global warming endangers public welfare, and the EPA administrator must act to prevent Americans from harm.
“The Bush administration is abdicating its clear responsibility to protect Americans from global warming. Every year of delay makes it more difficult to stop the worst effects of global warming,” concluded Hartzell.
