EPA Won't Regulate 'Greenhouse Gases'

The EPA denied a 1999 petition from environmental groups, which had asked the agency to use its powers under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new vehicles.

Burning oil and other fossil fuels produces gases that can rapidly concentrate in the atmosphere and cause temperatures to rise, a condition known as the greenhouse effect. This global warming, the environmental groups contend, will cause increases in infectious disease, skin cancer, water quality problems and other threats to public health.

But the EPA said that Congress had not sorted out federal policy on climate change, and that lawmakers had not authorized the agency to use the Clean Air Act to stop global warming.

"This is an issue that needs to be addressed first by Congress

"This is a sound decision that puts the issue directly where it belongs -- back in Congress," said William Kovacs, vice president of environmental policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The announcement came as little surprise.

Early in his term, President Bush reversed a campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and the administration has favored voluntary efforts rather than mandates to industry to control greenhouse gases.

David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental group, called the decision "another big favor for big-polluter campaign contributors" to the Bush administration.

The International Center for Technology Assessment, a Washington-based technology policy organization that filed the 1999 petition along with Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, said it would challenge the EPA's decision in court.

In California, an air-quality official also promised to sue the EPA, saying the federal agency's decision threatened state efforts to control greenhouse gases.

Under a law signed last year by Gov. Gray Davis, California became the first state to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle tailpipes. The law requires automakers to reduce emissions as much as possible according to rules the California Air Resources Board is scheduled to release in 2005. The rules would take effect in 2009.