Greenlist: Disappointed with the EPA

>> Since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused to let California set its own car emissions standards, California plans to sue the EPA. At least eight other states plan to side with California in the suit.

>> The EPA now wants to exempt factory farms from reporting their levels of air-polluting emissions. "Under a proposal put forth today, commercial livestock operations would not have to report hazardous chemical pollution if the source was animal waste."

>> Enviro-activist and L.A. Urban Ranger Jenny Price makes a compelling case for letting us camp in Malibu. Also worth checking out is Jenny's three-part guide to accessing Malibu: one, two, three. Earlier: Citing wildfire threats, Malibu seeks to ban overnight camping in Malibu parks.

>> Another state beach has become off-limits to the public. The road to Point Sal has been barricaded by the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Comments

[Phil]

The EPA is doing nothing to interfere with the existing California vehicle emissions exemption that allows our state to set stricter standards than the Feds. The EPA is resisting California's attempt independently regulate CO2 emissions as an end-run around the federal government on fuel mileage standards. CO2 is *not* a pollutant. It is not only a natural result of even the cleanest combustion, it is the result of every human and animal respiration. CO2 also is vital to plant life. Greens will earn more credibility when they accept that CO2 is not pollution, but we have many other real sources of pollution to curtail. Water and the oceans, not atmospheric CO2, constitute the real environmental urgency.

[Siel]

Dude -- Your argument about CO2 not being a pollutant because humans breathe it out is like saying humans need water to live therefore tsunamis and floods that kill thousands of people are *not* negative events because they involve water.

Of course people breathe out CO2 -- but that's not even comparable to the CO2 output from factories and cars. You may have missed this, but back in April, the supreme court already ruled that CO2 IS a greenhouse gas that the EPA can regulate.