Transition To Green report
December 1, 2008
This past week, nearly 30 environmental, science and conservation groups presented their top environmental policy recommendations to President-elect Obama’s transition team. The 391-page document, called “Transition to Green,” sets forth recommendations for key federal agencies on a wide variety of environmental issues, including land, air, water, oceans and public health.
Transition to Green is an extraordinary collaboration among groups with millions of members. Most recommendations are listed twice — within “issue” groupings of similar actions and then in agendas for “The First 100 Days” that are meant to guide immediate action.
Even a small part of the document, dealing with recommendations for the EPA, will give an idea of the sweeping change called for. Recommendations listed under “ISSUE 2 /PROTECT AMERICANS AND OUR ENVIRONMENT AGAINST THREE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS FORMS OF AIR POLLUTION: FINE PARTICLES, SMOG, AND TOXICS SUCH AS MERCURY” call for the EPA to reverse damaging Bush administration policies on New Source Review and SOx/NOx pollution and junk any (expected) eleventh-hour rules made under the Clean Air Act.
There are numerous recommendations listed under “ISSUE 4/REDUCE EMISSIONS QUICKLY AND DEEPLY ENOUGH TO AVOID THE WORST EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING,” as one might expect, including “Comply with Landmark Supreme Court Ruling” (Massachusetts v. EPA), “Reduce Global Warming Emissions from Cars and Trucks,” “Require New Power Plants to Factor in Global Warming” (an outgrowth of the Deseret Power EAB decision I wrote about last week), “Reduce Global Warming Emissions from Power Plants,” “Reduce Global Warming Emissions from Fuels,” “Announce Principles for Comprehensive Global Warming Legislation,” “Enact Comprehensive Global Warming Legislation,” “Reduce Global Warming Emissions from the Transportation Sector,” “Support EPA Voluntary and Complimentary [sic] Programs,” and “Support EPA Research Funding.”
None of these are surprising (all have been discussed at length in blogs and other media), but still, I’d say the new EPA Administrator will have his/her hands full.
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