BIG OIL

EPA won’t list carbon dioxide as air pollutant

Following its controversial Clean Air Act exemption for industry, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday rejected a petition that carbon dioxide — a gas that many scientists fear is warming the Earth — be categorized and regulated as an air pollutant.
During the Clinton administration, the EPA said it had the necessary authority to regulate CO2 as a global warming pollutant. But the EPA on Thursday stated that "Congress has not granted EPA authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gases for climate change purposes".