
Carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas linked to global warming, isn’t a pollutant the agency can regulate, according to the memorandum released yesterday by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. The finding responds to a Nov. 13 decision by an internal EPA board that blocked approval of a coal plant in Utah because developers failed to consider controls for CO2 emissions.
The permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s 110- megawatt plant in eastern Utah was the first to be approved by the EPA after a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that carbon dioxide could be controlled under the Clean Air Act. Obama has signaled that he is open to regulating CO2 from cars and power plants under the law.