Obama administration releases Bush-era global warming finding
An email, deep-sixed by the Bush administration because it warned about global warming, was released this week, almost two years after the Environmental Protection Agency first sent it to the White House. It was never opened. The email and its attachment show that in December 2007 the EPA concluded that six gases linked to global warming pose dangers to public welfare because of the burning of petrol in cars, and pushed for action on their release into the air. But the Bush administration opposed using the Clean Air Act to deal with climate change and stalled on an "endangerment finding" the Supreme Court had ordered in 2007. Thus, when the memo went forward, the Bush White House ignored it and simply didn’t open it. In April this year the Obama administration concurred with the EPA, and added that greenhouse gases endanger public health. The EPA is now drafting the first greenhouse gas standards for cars. The email was released in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, but, not surprisingly, the American Chamber of Commerce and some Republican lawmakers have called for still more thorough vetting of the science.
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