Collision on coal is coming

A few years' delay in regulating dirty power plants could halt progress on global warming for decades.
Ronald Brownstein
LA Times

April 11, 2007

AN OMINOUS collision is approaching between Washington's legislative and regulatory agenda and the investment plans of the nation's largest utilities. Unless these blueprints are aligned, meaningful progress against global warming could be foreclosed for years, or even decades.

Mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming appear inevitable after a Supreme Court decision last week. By ruling that greenhouse gases qualified as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, the court virtually required the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate them — and increased the likelihood that Congress will impose limits as well. But with President Bush opposed to compulsory reductions, none are likely until he leaves office.

Many utilities now accept the inevitability of restraints on greenhouse gas emissions, but most won't act unless they are required to act. And while Washington delays in establishing such requirements, utilities are making investment decisions that could undermine whatever strategy the nation finally adopts.

(More here.)