Emitters Protection Agency

The EPA's call for public input on greenhouse gas regulation continues a pattern of avoidance.

CARBON DIOXIDE and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change are a danger to public health and welfare. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson could have come to that conclusion. The science certainly would have been on his side. But Mr. Johnson opted to ignore the urgings of EPA experts when he announced yesterday that the agency would seek public comment on the threat posed by global warming, thus pushing regulation of greenhouse gases to the next administration. This move makes President Bush's signing of the Group of Eight declaration on climate change on Tuesday look like an empty gesture.

We agree that the Clean Air Act doesn't provide the ideal way to regulate greenhouse gasses and wasn't designed for that purpose. But the Bush administration has only itself to blame for this regulatory mess. Rather than go to Congress with a rational plan for a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, it played games.

In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. In addition, the court said that the agency must determine whether those emissions endanger public health and welfare by contributing to climate change. If they do, the EPA must devise standards to regulate them. If not, the court required the agency to ground its explanation in science.

Here's what got the White House spooked: If the EPA classified carbon dioxide from motor vehicles as a pollutant that threatens public health or welfare, then the agency would have to regulate greenhouse gases from all other sources as well. Sections 108, 109 and 111 of the Clean Air Act deal with regulating emissions from stationary sources, such as residential and commercial buildings, establishing national ambient air quality standards and setting source performance standards, respectively. Each of these complicated regulations has its own complex implementation process.

Ever since the Supreme Court's ruling, the administration, using the limited discretion granted by the high court, has punted on meaningful decision-making. Mr. Johnson initially said that an endangerment finding would be made by the end of 2007. Because yesterday's newly announced process for public input will last 120 days, Mr. Johnson has effectively kicked a final decision to the next administration.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, both recognize climate change as a threat to the nation's security and way of life. No matter which man is elected, the see-no-evil approach of the Bush administration will come to a merciful end.