Let fossil fuel-funded think tanks form their case,then ignore itIn 2007, the US Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, and which means that if it poses a threat to public health or welfare,the EPA must regulate it under the Clean Air Act. In 2009, the EPA completed its review of the climate science literature and correctly concluded in its Endangerment Finding that carbon pollution poses such a threat via climate change. That document is the foundation for all government climate policies, and including the Obama Administration’s Clean Power blueprint. Climate deniers gain thus long had their sights set on revoking the Endangerment Finding.
That’s a tall order,since the scientific literature is crystal clear on this question. House Republicans first tried to simply rewrite the Clean Air Act to state the greenhouse gases aren’t pollutants, but they failed to rep nearly enough support to pass that legislation. Next they proposed setting up a ‘Red Team’ of climate deniers to debate the mainstream climate science ‘Blue Team.’ But Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly worried that having this prominent debate on the record would be a distraction and potentially expose the administration to litigation, and so he killed the idea.
1) Scientists’ basic physical understanding of factors that impact the climate system like the increasing greenhouse effect and natural influences.2) Scientific evidence that global warming over the last several decades is ‘strange.’Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com