Green Industries Initiative

Blog written by Jacob Cox.

Opposition continues to grow against the U.S. Environment Protection Agency's (EPA) recent finding that greenhouse gases "endanger" public safety and welfare due to their effect on global warming.  Climate change issues are already a common source of controversy, but the EPA's finding has drawn attention due to the potentially wide-reaching effect of regulations proposed by the EPA:  More than six million facilities whose emissions are currently unregulated, including hospitals, restaurants, hotels and even small farms, could potentially be subject to new permitting requirements.

Driven by a concern for the effect of such new administrative and economic burdens on small businesses, Virginia and two other states filed suit in federal court against the EPA in late February 2010, in an attempt to force it to reexamine its "endangerment" finding.  Since that time, more than a dozen other states, including Indiana, Kentucky and Nebraska, have filed motions to join the Virginia lawsuit in opposition to the EPA's finding.  Outside the courtroom, numerous members of Congress have also begun to seek support for an amendment to the Clean Air Act that would specifically prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. 

Despite these criticisms, the EPA has refused to compromise its position, and has indicated that it believes its "endangerment" finding will withstand even such direct legal attacks.  Further, the EPA is not without its supporters in this fight – a similar number of states have already expressed their agreement with the EPA's finding, and have even requested the right to intervene in lawsuits filed against the EPA in support of the EPA's position.