EPA Finds Greenhouse Gases Pose Threat to Public Health, Welfare / Proposed Finding Comes in Response to 2007 Supreme Court Ruling



Finally, the EPA has deemed that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose an elevated health risk and must be regulated in some manner. This move represents a major turnaround from the days of the Bush administration where the environment took a backseat to every other issue. Under President Obama’s call for a low carbon economy, the reduction of carbon dioxide is very promising. The idea of labeling carbon dioxide as a harmful substance to the human race, stemmed from a 2007 scientific review ordered by the US Supreme Court. The review process centered around six main gases carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride all of which were deemed hurtful to human health and the world’s ecosystems.

This is a very significant issue because it is the first time in history and policy has been aimed at stopping carbon dioxide because we have finally realized that it is damaging human health by warming our climate to a point of heat waves, increased storm activity, and a higher impact on the world’s poor. This occasion also shows that we are able to change to a low carbon economy that Obama has promised and it shows that we care for the only planet that we are going to get. I think much policy is involved in this issue since it is going to require vast amounts of regulation on all sectors of our economy ranging from transportation to energy. It will require cooperation from state and local governments in the forms of regulation of business, stricter efficiency standards for vehicles, and an acceptance to the fact that our lively hoods must change if this proposed action is going to succeed.

Another area where this new direction will help is in the green industry sector. Will more emphasis on reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere there will ultimately be a stronger push for a green industry economy. One example of this is a company called Powerspan which works at removing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and sequestering it underground in large storage tanks. Also, forcing a reduction of carbon dioxide has also led to the EPA to talking about forcing utility and car companies to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that they release, but President Obama really wants to rely on legislation before forcing companies in a certain direction. This new direction in my belief is the starting point to us finally realizing that we actually do impact this planet and we only have one more chance to save it.