Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: News

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks regarding greenhousegas emissions and the possiblehealth threat they cause to thepopulation.

The implications of thisdecision will potentially includethe regulation of carbondioxide and other greenhousegases in the form of legislationand a possible resurgenceof the Clean Air act.

Lisa Jackson, the newlyappointed administrator of theEPA, said of the decision thatthe American people deservean opinion on the possibleharms of greenhouse gases, atopic that the Bush administration had shied away fromin recent years.

"If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she explained in an interview with the Associated Press.

Should the EPA decide to begin regulating greenhouse gases, the decision would greatly impact transportation industries, utilities and power generating, and manufacturing costs.

Given the state of the economy, many are questioning this expensive effort.

Democrats from states with vested interests in manufacturing jobs and coal-generated electricity, including Michigan Representative John Dingell, have verbally warned that such a decision would result in a "glorious mess" for the economic status of these states. It seems, however, that the wheels are already in motion.

In his first week in office, President Obama called on the EPA to revisit the Bush administration's ruling regarding state statutes related to regulating automobile emissions.

With an international summit on climate set to take place in December in Copenhagen, Jackson and the work of the Obama administration will be closely watched by world powers.

"We here know how momentous that decision could be," Ms. Jackson said in a New York Times interview. "We have to lay out a road map."

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