Earth Equity News

EPA Appeals Board Issues Major Ruling in CO2. By Bryan Walsh, Time, November 13, 2008. "Coal plants already operating [contribute 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.]. Over 100 coal plants are in various stages of development around the country. If those plants are built without the means to capture and sequester underground the carbon they emit -- and it's far from clear that such technology will be commercially viable in the near-term -- our ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert climate change will be meaningless. That's why a decision [PDF, 39 pp] issued on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board is so important. Responding to a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club over a new coal plant being build on American Indian reservation land in Utah, the board ruled that the EPA has no valid reason to refuse to regulate the CO2 emissions that come from new coal-powered plants... 'In a nutshell it sends [new plants ] back to the drawing board to address their CO2 emissions,' says Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's National Clean Coal campaign. 'In the short term it freezes the coal industry in its tracks.'"