The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States established to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land.
The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, and has since been chiefly responsible for the environmental policy of the United States. Presently, it is led by its Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who is appointed by the President of the United States.
I have just covered what does EPA stand for and I am sure many of you would be curious as to what is the purpose of the EPA.
The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education and has the primary responsibility for setting and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. It also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.
The EPA found that carbon dioxide; one among the greenhouse gases could be a potential danger to public health and submitted the finding to the White House. If the White House Office of Management and Budget approves, the EPA could use the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases that are believed to contribute to climate change. As a result, the government would hence forth start treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
While Obama wants the Congress to pass energy security legislation that includes a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must review whether greenhouse-gas emissions pose a threat to public health or welfare, which would take a while to be finalized. The administration has proposed a cap-and-trade system that could raise $646 billion by 2019 through government auctions of emission allowances. Environmentalists are pressing the administration to act before December, with respect to Koyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that forces many industrialized countries to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions.
The agency, ever since it recognized the potential scope of this regulation has proposed a national system for reporting carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions by major emitters. The EPA has said about 13,000 facilities, accounting for about 85% to 90% of greenhouse gases emitted in the U.S., would be covered under the proposal. Coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and domestic industries, such as energy-intensive paper, cement, fertilizer, steel, and glass manufacturers, worry that increased cost burdens imposed by climate-change laws will put them at a severe competitive disadvantage to their international peers who aren’t imposed with such rules.
EPA believes that the health effects of elevated greenhouse-gas levels could cause severe heat waves with likely increases in mortality and morbidity, especially among the elderly, young and frail. The agency feels climate change caused by higher greenhouse-gas levels could result in more severe storms and more suffering related to floods, storms, droughts and fires. Environmentalists feel strongly about the endangerment finding, and say action by Congress or the Obama administration to curb greenhouse gases is necessary to halt the ill effects of climate change.
