I have to write out about a quote I read this morning in the Monitor. The article "EPA staffers go to Hill over global warming" features a great chart comparing US states' emission of greenhouse gases to that of entire countries. If states were individual nations, six would rank among the top 30 emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide.
But what got me was this infuriating quote:
"Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre argued that Congress never gave the EPA authority to regulate CO2. Even if the agency had the authority, he continued, "now is not the time to exercise such authority, in light of the substantial scientific uncertainty surrounding global climate change and the ongoing studies to address those uncertainties.""
The only "substantial scientific uncertainty", of course, is whether or not the Bush White House can accept documented science when it conflicts with corporate profiteering. And Garre's contention that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate CO2 hinges on the brainless argument that CO2 is not a pollutant. As if the thousands of tons of CO2 introduced into the air by industry, energy, and automobiles aren't pollution. If that's the case, perhaps Garre could sit in his garage with the car running for a few hours.
Beyond the more self-evident documentations available in An Inconvenient Truth about what greenhouse gases are doing to the atmosphere, Elizabeth Kolbert covered the irreparable effect CO2 is having on the oceans in the New Yorker last month.
But what got me was this infuriating quote:
"Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre argued that Congress never gave the EPA authority to regulate CO2. Even if the agency had the authority, he continued, "now is not the time to exercise such authority, in light of the substantial scientific uncertainty surrounding global climate change and the ongoing studies to address those uncertainties.""
The only "substantial scientific uncertainty", of course, is whether or not the Bush White House can accept documented science when it conflicts with corporate profiteering. And Garre's contention that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate CO2 hinges on the brainless argument that CO2 is not a pollutant. As if the thousands of tons of CO2 introduced into the air by industry, energy, and automobiles aren't pollution. If that's the case, perhaps Garre could sit in his garage with the car running for a few hours.
Beyond the more self-evident documentations available in An Inconvenient Truth about what greenhouse gases are doing to the atmosphere, Elizabeth Kolbert covered the irreparable effect CO2 is having on the oceans in the New Yorker last month.
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