“Legacy” or something.
The Obama administration is set to announce that it will require new rules to cut emissions from airplanes, expanding a quest to tackle climate change that has included a string of significant regulations on cars, trucks and power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to report as early as Friday its conclusion that greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes endanger human health because they significantly contribute to global warming, although people familiar with the agency’s plans said the announcement could slip into next week.
That announcement, known in legal parlance as an endangerment finding, will prompt a requirement under the Clean Air Act for the agency to issue new regulations to reduce airplane emissions. The agency is expected to limit the rule to commercial aircraft, leaving out small craft and military planes.
Under the 1970 Clean Air Act, the federal government is required to regulate all pollutants that are found to endanger human health. The E.P.A. put forth similar endangerment findings on emissions from vehicles and power plants before issuing new regulations on them, and those findings have held up in court.
The new rules, which have been furiously opposed by regulated industries and Republicans, have emerged as a hallmark of President Obama’s environmental legacy. Republicans have called the new rules an example of government overreach that will cost jobs and stifle the economy.
These enviro-hippies are getting expensive. As with so many things leftists are fond of, this is another step towards some international regulatory kumbaya:
The E.P.A.’s finding would lay the groundwork for the United States to adopt the emissions standard being negotiated by the International Civil Aviation Organization. That group aims by next year to set new emissions standards for airlines, which have said that national rules would do little to curb emissions, given the industry’s global reach.
Expect Obama to get hyperactive about overreaching on climate hysteria and his anti-Second Amendment plans for the remainder of his term. Hopefully, much of it will eventually not withstand various legal challenges.
Hopefully.
The Republicans certainly aren’t doing much to slow him down.
