President Biden Can Regulate CO2 Now, Without Congress.
President Biden can regulate carbon dioxide now, without congress. Ok… so it’s actually not without congress, just with a different congress — the one from 1970.
That’s because in 1970 Congress passed the Clean Air Act. It requires the EPA to list and regulate harmful pollutants. We do this already with carbon monoxide, lead, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. Plus, we (perhaps reluctantly) regulate CO2 emissions for cars.
In 2007, the Supreme Court virtually required EPA to do it. In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court held that EPA must either regulate emissions from cars or else provide (non-existent) science saying that CO2 is not a threat. The Supreme Court said:
“Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Act’s capacious definition of ‘air pollutant,’ EPA has statutory authority to regulate emission of such gases from new motor vehicles.
…
EPA [cannot] avoid its [] obligation by noting the uncertainty surrounding various features of climate change and concluding that it would therefore be better not to regulate at this time. If the scientific uncertainty is so profound that it precludes EPA from making a reasoned judgment, it must say so.”
Because of that case, the Obama administration created CO2 emissions standards for every auto manufacturer in 2009. Each new generation of cars had to average better fuel economy than the last. In 2025 the average fuel economy will be over 50 miles per gallon. We can and should use the Clean Air Act to do that for CO2 emissions generally.
So, why haven’t we? Honestly, it’s hard to say. We have, essentially, a silver bullet, passed by congress, blessed by the Supreme Court. Joe Biden can use it to put real CO2 emissions standards in place almost immediately. Will there be lawsuits to stop it? Undoubtedly. Will conservatives freak out? It’ll be gender-neutral bathrooms and taco truck panic all over again. Are those valid reasons not to try to save humanity? No.
President Biden has the ability to mitigate at least some of the catastrophic consequences of CO2 emissions during his first term. We need to write, protest, and generally be nuisances until he does. You can write him a letter if you want to do the absolute minimum: crazyuncleJ42@whitehouse.gov.
