United States stepping up to the plate at UN Climate Summit

Just when you thought that a series of rogue emails from London were going to further put a plug in an already slow moving system, Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, arrived to be the necessary plunger to get things flowing along once again. 

Here’s why. 

In April of 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. the EPA that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the authority to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases, if they are indeed a threat to human health and welfare.

Since then, however, not much had happened under the Bush Administration that would cause this ruling to become a solid foundational block in the much needed larger energy structure.

But…During the U.N. Summit on Climate Change, Lisa Jackson announced during a press conference here in the states, that the EPA would be continuing what they began in 2007.

What does this mean?

It means that the United States will now be officially taking a stronger stance on Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions as we are quite a large CO2 producer.

Take a look at this interactive map courtesy of BreathingEarth.net

The ruling allows the EPA to now begin regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, factories and major industrial polluters. "The threat is real," said Jackson. "If we don’t act to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the planet we will leave to the future will be very different than the one we know today."

The ruling also states that carbon dioxide and five other gases pose a danger to human health and this clears the way for the EPA to regulate emissions from the above large industrial sources without waiting for legislation from Congress.

Find out more and stay informed by going to:

UN Climate Change Conference 09