A Few Questions for EPA on Coal and Global Warming

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know why the Environmental Protection Agency is approving coal-fired power plants without restricting their greenhouse gas output, despite a Supreme Court decision that makes clear the EPA's authority -- and responsibility -- to control pollution that causes global warming.

Thursday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, will have the committee question Administrator Stephen Johnson, about "EPA Approval of New Power Plants: Failure to Address Global Warming Pollutants.”

The EPA recently approved a new coal-fired power plant without requiring any limits on carbon dioxide. It has also yet to rule on California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver that would allow it to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles -- a rule that a dozen states plan to adopt if approved.

Besides Johnson, witnesses will include Ron Curry, secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department; David Doniger, policy director for the Climate Center of the Natural Resources Defense Council; Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley; and John Cline, a partner in Troutman Sanders.

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