EPA was expected to announce its endangerment finding for CO2 emissions as soon as today, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The move was timed in part to increase the U.S. position at the Copenhagen climate change talks. Two sources said the finding would include an analysis of the cost of not regulating the emissions.
An EPA rule restricting CO2 could be finalized by 2012. Joe Mendelson, head of global warming policy at the National Wildlife Federation, said the announcement was being made at "absolutely the right time," as the Senate was also considering climate change legislation. Mendelson declared: "With House legislation passed, a bipartisan Senate bill in the works, and strong EPA action a virtual certainty, the president goes to Copenhagen with a very strong hand to play."
According to the Wall Street Journal, EEI spokesman Dan Riedinger said: "the EPA would be less likely than Congress to come up with an 'economywide approach' to regulating emissions." The Journal went on to report "the power industry prefers such an approach because it would spread the burden of emission cuts to other industries as well."
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The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is proud to sponsor the Smart Climate Policy blog and Web site - www.SmartClimatePolicy.org.
Organized in 1933, EEI is the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies.
Our members serve 95 percent of the ultimate customers in the shareholder-owned segment of the industry, and represent approximately 70 percent of the U.S. electric power industry. We also have more than 65 International electric companies as Affiliate members, and more than 170 industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate members.