LANSING – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that greenhouse gases are hazardous, the first step toward regulating them but that does not mean state, or federal, regulation of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases are imminent, Department of Environmental Quality Director Steven Chester told Gongwer News Service.
“This is a huge action on the part of EPA,” Chester said of the federal decision last week. But he said the full effect of the decision is still somewhat unknown because officials are still reviewing the 133-page document.
And the finding is not yet official. The EPA is taking 60 days of public comment before the document is considered final.
But even the final document will not give the DEQ a full green light on CO2 regulations, Chester said. The decision is being issued under mobile source provisions of the federal Clean Air Act. “We don’t regulate mobile sources,” Chester said.
“What’s not addressed is whether CO2 is regulated for stationary sources,” he said. “That’s an area where we’re still looking for guidance from EPA.”
Chester said the decision last week could be used as a basis for regulating stationary sources, like power plants, one of the big targets for such regulation by environmental groups. But he said the EPA will first have to draft and approve rules setting those regulations.
Environmental groups for some time have been calling for Michigan to draft its own CO2 rules and DEQ officials have for that same period said they are waiting for the federal rules as guidance to be sure the state is in line with what’s happening in the rest of the region.
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