States, cities petition EPA to regulate greenhouse gases\nWASHINGTON -- A coalition of 12 states and several cities asked a federal appeals court Friday to make the Environmental Protection Agency reconsider its decision not to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases as air pollutants.\nThe case has large potential implications for numerous federal and state programs under the Clean Air Act, as well as for the auto industry. Along with other forms of transportation, motor vehicles account for about a third of all U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions -- the gas scientists chiefly blame for global warming.\nIn a courtroom packed with auto industry representatives, environmentalists and government employees, three justices of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sternly questioned lawyers for the states and the EPA. The judges wondered how far the government should go in the face of scientific uncertainty over global warming, but they did not indicate when they might rule in the case; such decisions typically take months.\nIn August 2003, the EPA denied a petition from the nonprofit International Center for Technology Assessment and other groups that sought to impose new controls on auto emissions. The agency said it lacked authority from Congress to regulate greenhouse gases, based on a legal opinion from the agency's top lawyer, who had reversed the Clinton-era legal opinion that the gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.\nTwo months later, states and several cities formally challenged that decision. In the courtroom Friday, they argued the EPA never adequately justified its decision.\nThe states said the fact that another agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, regulates vehicles' fuel economy is beside the point. They also argued Congress had included the word "climate" in the Clean Air Act for a reason.\nThe EPA would have no easy way to regulate carbon dioxide from motor vehicles, said Jeffrey Clark, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's environment division.\nStates challenging the EPA are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, along with the U.S. territory of American Samoa, as well as Baltimore, New York and Washington, D.C.\nThey said the EPA acknowledged in testimony to Congress in 1998, 1999 and 2000 that the Clean Air Act allows the agency to regulate pollution that causes global warming. Other states and cities also have tried to force federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
Dumping nerve agent in Delaware River raises health concerns\nWASHINGTON - The U.S. Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River might not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government said.\nThe plan "has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.\nRep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., one of several New Jersey and Delaware lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.\nThe Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2 1/2 years.\nThe VX -- a liquid with the consistency of mineral oil that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint-sized droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.\nThe VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.\nThe CDC report is critical of this measure for several reasons, including the possibility that traces of VX lingering in the byproduct could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant can treat traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.\nThe report does say it is safe for the Army to ship the byproduct via tanker trucks from Indiana to New Jersey. Several congressmen and senators from New Jersey and Delaware asked the agency last year to study the Army's plan.\nThe U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency released a statement Wednesday saying it was reviewing the report.\nNick Fanandakis, vice president and general manager of DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise, said the company will review the report and will not move forward with the Army's plan until the recommendations are reviewed and addressed.
