EPA Gets Authority to Regulate GHG's
Only a day after the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency is “expressly authorized” under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, the agency has reopened California's petition for a waiver from the EPA's guideline which had precluded regulation of gases not deemed to be air pollutants, such as CO2. A waiver would allow California to regulate tail pipe emissions and clear the way for 13 other petitioning states to do the same.
But the waiver may not be necessary if the EPA, in exercising its new authority, determines that GHG's should be regulated at the federal level. This is an outcome sought by automakers because it's their only hope of getting weaker regulation than that proposed by California. While the ruling did not explicitly direct the EPA to regulate GHG's, it requires the agency to give a scientific basis for not doing so.
The high court in a separate but related ruling gave authority to the EPA to regulate emissions from factories and power plants. This is good news not only for Earth but also for Sun (I couldn't resist) because energy producers will more aggressively seek reductions in demand for electricity. I expect we'll see more programs like PG&E's rebate for Sun's CoolThreads servers.
