Can Carbon Be Cut Without Climate Legislation?

Time (EcoCentric Blog)
Posted by Bryan Walsh Friday, July 23, 2010 at 12:30 pm

Carbon cap-and-trade is dead—at least for this political lifetime. And while the circular firing squad among Democrats and greens has already begun, it's worth taking a deep breath and remembering that there are other tools that can be used to deal with climate change. As TIME's Joe Klein points out, the Supreme Court ruled more than three years ago that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The EPA has already begun to effectively regulate carbon emissions from automobiles with its tougher fuel efficiency standards, but it's not yet clear how the agency might work to regulate emissions from electric utilities or other sectors.

As a new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows, regulations could have a widely varying effect on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the coming two decades, depending on how aggressive the government wants to be—but even the tightest rules would be unlikely to reduce emissions enough to avoid dangerous climate change. The WRI authors divide potential regulatory approaches into three self-explanatory categories—"Lackluster," "Middle-of-the-Road," and "Go-Getter"—and looked at the potential for both state and federal action. (The reports notes that 25 states have already taken action on greenhouse gas emissions on their own.)

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