NY Times: EPA Releases Bush-Era Endangerment Document

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/13/13greenwire-epa-releases-bush-era-endangerment-document-47439.html

October 13, 2009

EPA Releases Bush-Era Endangerment Document

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN AND ROBIN BRAVENDER of Greenwire

U.S. EPA released a long-sequestered document on global warming today showing the George W. Bush administration had concluded in December 2007 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles were endangering public welfare and needed to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

The http://www.eenews.net/public/25/12762/features/documents/2009/10/13/document_pm_04.pdf">29-page EPA analysis (pdf) -- labeled "Deliberative, Do Not Distribute" -- ticked through the climate-changing effects that heat-trapping gases have on air pollution, precipitation patterns, sea-level rise, glacial melting and wildlife patterns. The 2007 EPA document was prepared as part of the Bush administration's response to the Supreme Court's April 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Until now, only House and Senate investigators had seen the Bush-era EPA's "endangerment finding" on climate change -- though under strict rules that would not allow them to make complete copies of the document. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) last summer released http://www.eenews.net/public/25/12762/features/documents/2008/07/24/document_gw_05.pdf">excerpts and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) produced a detailed http://www.eenews.net/public/25/12762/features/documents/2008/07/18/document_daily_04.pdf">report (pdf) (pdf) on the issue based on interviews with agency staff.

Bush's White House Office of Management and Budget denied E&E's request to publicly unseal the climate change materials through the Freedom of Information Act. E&E later resubmitted its request to the Obama administration, and EPA officials said today they agreed to release the document because the agency earlier this spring issued its own proposal that said automobile emissions are a threat to both public health and welfare.

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