 Off road regulations coming, (aftermarket exhaust)
From AP, to those who said they were not warned to the stricter emission regulations in the past. Read the last line.
EPA Official Says Bush Decision On Greenhouse Gases Unlikely
A senior Environmental Protection Agency official says it’s unlikely the Bush administration will decide whether to regulate global warming emissions.
Margo Oge, head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, told reporters at an automotive conference that “given the time frame available to the agency, it’s not realistic” that EPA will decide whether to regulate emissions linked to global warming, as the Supreme Court directed one year ago.
Oge said an advanced notice for a proposed rule-making on the issue will be released later this spring, and the public will then have two months to comment. The agency plans to evaluate those comments and a proposal typically needs a year of consideration, she said. Oge spoke at the annual conference of SAE International, an automotive engineering group.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has said any decision on whether to regulate greenhouse gases needs to be examined broadly. Johnson said last month he was seeking public comment on the implications of regulating carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, on other agency rules that cover everything from power plants and factories to schools and small businesses.
The process could take months and has led some of his critics to suggest it represents a delay tactic aimed at pushing a decision off to the next presidential administration.
The Supreme Court said in April 2007 that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act. The court directed the EPA to determine if CO2 emissions, linked to global warming, endanger public health and welfare.
If that is the case, the court said, the EPA must regulate the emissions.
The ruling, in a lawsuit by Massachusetts against the EPA, dealt only with pollution from cars and trucks.
Johnson has said if carbon dioxide is found to endanger public health and welfare, the agency likely will have to curtail such emissions from other sources as well. That could affect a range of air pollution, from cement factories, refineries and power plants to cars, aircraft, schools and off-road vehicles.
AP | 
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