Bush Administration: Carbon Dioxide Not a Pollutant

[ElsewheresDaughter]

WASHINGTON - Carbon dioxide, the chief cause of global warming, cannot be regulated as a pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled Thursday.

The decision reverses a 1998 Clinton administration position. It means that the Bush administration won't be able to use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars.

Had the Bush administration decided that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and harmful, it could have required expensive new pollution controls on new cars and perhaps on power plants, which together are the main sources of so-called greenhouse gases.

Environmentalists are expected to respond by suing the EPA to try to force it to regulate carbon dioxide. The real fight is likely to shift to Congress, where some lawmakers are proposing a new law giving the EPA clear authority to regulate emissions of gases linked to global warming.

"Refusing to call greenhouse-gas emissions a pollutant is like refusing to say that smoking causes lung cancer," responded Melissa Carey, a climate policy specialist for Environmental Defense, a New York-based environmental group. "The Earth is round. Elvis is dead. Climate change is happening."

more...

CO2 IS NOT A POLLUTANT'
Environmentalists accused President Bush on August 28, 2003 of further undermining international efforts to curb global warming with a likely ruling that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Carbon dioxide occurs as a natural component of the atmosphere as well as being a by-product of industrial processes. Bush is shown during a campaign speech in Saginaw, Michigan on Sept. 29, 2000 during which he announced proposals for mandatory reductions in four major pollutants, including carbon dioxide.

[karlschneider]

1. But, but, Ronnie Jesus Raygun said TREES cause pollution!

Surely he wasn't ...lying......???
groan

banging head on wall

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. and is this guys name a joke? "Robert Fabricant"

FabriCAN...fabricated this

[Mari333]

3. Ketchup Is a VEGETABLE

:bounce:

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Ooo-kaaaay. If that's the case, G-Dubya...

Here a little game you can play next time you are at the ranch:

1. get a garden hose

2. Fire up one of them tractors

3. Attach one end of hose onto tailpipe

4. Open mouth

5. Insert other end of hose in mouth

6. Breath deep

[Catshrink]

12. That's carbon monoxide that'll kill you

Carbon dioxide is the stuff we exhale.

[FlemingsGhost]

14. Yeah, I know...

Still a fantastic idea, though.
I'll bet all my possessions Mr. "Harvard, M.B.A " wouldn't know the difference.

[Catshrink]

22. Agreed

"I'll bet all my possessions Mr. "Harvard, M.B.A " wouldn't know the difference. "

He'd probably try it thinking it was Nitrous Oxide or laughing gas.

[absolutezero]

23. carbon dioxide will kill you

if it's the only thing we inhale...
the same applies to anything except oxygen....and even that can kill if we inhale too much (pure oxygen gives you a high)

[0007]

19. I love it and I wish junior would try it

LOL!! I mean it.

[LiberalUprising]

5. Link?

nt

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. opps ...so sorry.....here's the link.....

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0829-02.htm

[LiberalUprising]

8. Thanks

Another here
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/6647986.htm

[karlschneider]

7. I suppose that "technically" it isn't a 'pollutant', but it damn sure can

be a poison. It's true, we do exhale CO2 (and emit various other by-products...I wonder how much human shit Bush would tolerate next to his peanut butter sandwich)...

I clearly recall an incident from a few years ago in Tampa, 3 or 4 men working in a large tank died when the carbon dioxide overcame them. It's a rather insidious, if barely noticable (like the frog in the pot of cold water that gets put on the stove) way to die. But it's effective.

Trees need CO2 so they can respire oxygen, but too much is ... well, too much.

[Flubadubya]

18. Lake in Africa...

A few years ago there was a lake in Africa that belched a huge cloud of C02 onto the surrounding landscape. All life,human and animal, was snuffed out in a matter of minutes. C02 is often used to euthanize laboratory animals, basically suffocates them.

[bobthedrummer]

9. Well CO2 isn't a pollutant and neither are Chem-trails then

which were addressed by Dennis Kucinich in the orignal HR2977 language

http://www.raven1.net/govptron.htm

[Nlighten1]

10. Toxic sludge is good for you!

Never forget that folks...

[montana_hazeleyes]

11. Elvis is dead?

C'mon.

[Cheswick2.0]

13. they just disreguard the balance between that and all the other gasses

it is a naturally occuring gas, but just like oxygen, there is only supposed to so much of it.

[0007]

15. I wonder what they think it is

*

[NNN0LHI]

16. This reminds of when Reagan said trees cause as much pollution as cars

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030312.wtree312/BNStory/Front

<snip>Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan caused an uproar in 1980 when he said trees cause just as much pollution as cars.

[trapper914]

17. Of course they don't care.

They don't believe global warming exists, therefore greenhouse gases aren't a problem to them.

[barbaraann]

20. Using the analogy of water,

water is not a toxin or a pollutant but too much of it can be a FLOOD which kills and destroys.

[fortyfeetunder]

21. Duct tape a room in the WH

And let him make some good old CO2 real time.

I wonder how my RWW chemical engineer friends are handling this...

[Thoth]

24. I think it likely...

that global climate change will become a BIG issue in about two decades or so,
though by then it will be too late to do anything about it. We will have reached the
point of "Overshoot" well before then.

Look at this summer's heatwave in Europe. Over 10,000 deaths, with heat records being set in
several countries. Harvests down over 50%. Events like will probably become much more frequent over the next few decades
(and frequently in the USA). Our karma may come back in spades.

This could have serious repurcussions.

Imagine if several wheat crops in a row are substantially below average... the US might not be able to export grain, and even domestic consumption could be impacted.

Imagine if the gulf stream is shut off due to a massive influx of melting water from the ice caps. Super-storrms and a new Ice Age,
paradoxically could result.

We're playing with fire when we play with our atmosphere.

[jmm]

25. Yeah right, and arsenic is a tasty water additive.

:eyes:

[goforit]

26. Take a deep breadth W!!!.............

Knowing W, he will insert chlorophil in his veins just to prove it!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

27. hey..somebody duped my thread....kick