US rejects climate regulations

2008-07-11 22:36

Washington - The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses.

In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress in January 2009.

The White House on Thursday rejected EPA's conclusion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act "can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change." Instead, EPA said on Friday that law is "ill-suited" for dealing with climate change.

This contrasts sharply with the tone of statements President George W Bush made at the just-concluded G-8 summit of leading industrialised nations in Toyako, Japan. The United States at that meeting joined other summit partners in embracing a policy declaration to seek a 50% reduction in global greenhouse gases by 2050.

In a major setback to the administration, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the government has authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. Bush has consistently opposed that option.

Supporters of regulating greenhouse gases could get only 38 votes in the 100-member Senate last month.

The House of Representatives has held several hearings on the problem but no votes on any bill addressing it. The two major presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, have endorsed variations of the approach rejected by the Senate.

In its voluminous document, the EPA laid out a buffet of options on how to reduce greenhouse gases from cars, ships, trains, power plants, factories and refineries.

- AP