The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday upheld its December 2009 endangerment finding, which held that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pose a danger to the public’s health and welfare. The finding provided the legal trigger for the agency to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA) (see Daily GPI, Dec. 8, 2009).

The EPA denied 10 petitions asserting that the finding was not based on sound climate science and alleged that a conspiracy invalidated the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

The agency said it found no evidence to support the claims. Rather, its review showed that the climate science was “credible, compelling and growing stronger” for regulation of GHG emissions.

“The endangerment finding is based on years of science from the U.S. and around the world. These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

The endangerment finding still faces legal challenges by a number of companies, trade association and states in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18).

Nor has the agency’s endangerment determination been popular on Capitol Hill, with a number of lawmakers seeking to nullify the EPA’s use of its CAA authority to regulate emissions (see Daily GPI, Feb. 24).

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