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Oregon Sues Feds to Curb Effects of Carbon Dioxide

Posted on: Friday, 28 April 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Michael Milstein, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Apr. 28--Oregon joined nine other states Thursday in suing the federal government to force control of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which is released by new power plants across the country.

Attorney General Hardy Myers, backed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, signed on to the lawsuit filed in a federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C.

It continues a legal fight between the states and federal government over heat-trapping pollution that contributes to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency, the target of the lawsuit, contends it lacks authority to control greenhouse gases and earlier refused to limit carbon dioxide from automobiles.

Kulongoski has moved to clamp down on emissions from automobiles in Oregon, following similar steps by California authorities.

"We're doing our part, and there needs to be recognition at the federal level that global warming is real, and we need to do what we can to curb its effects," said Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor.

There is wide consensus among scientists that the burning of fossil fuels is increasing global temperatures, accelerating the melting of ice sheets that will raise sea levels. Warmer conditions are also expected to alter weather patterns and ecosystems in possibly unpredictable ways.

Oregon has required power plants built since 1997 to control carbon dioxide emissions or offset them through conservation actions. That encourages more efficient plants, said Mike Grainey, director of the Oregon Department of Energy.

Local environmental groups praised the state's move against the federal government but questioned whether Oregon is doing enough at home. They said, for instance, the state's own Department of Environmental Quality does not regulate greenhouse gases from industrial sources.

"There's a real inconsistency," said Melissa Powers, an attorney with the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Her group and others have been battling the DEQ over a new insulation plant in Gresham that would emit a potent greenhouse gas. The EPA is moving to ban the gas because it also destroys the protective ozone layer, but DEQ officials say they have no basis to restrict the plant.

Most greenhouse gas emitted in Oregon, by far, is carbon dioxide, about 38 percent of it from cars and other vehicles, and 42 percent from power plants as of 2000. The Oregon plant with the most emissions is a Portland General Electric coal-fired plant near Boardman.

It released about 4 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2004, according to EPA records -- roughly the same as 600,000 cars.

The lawsuit filed Thursday seeks controls only on new plants and would not affect the Boardman plant, which was also built before the state limited carbon dioxide emissions and so is exempt from those rules.

But the Boardman plant's permit is up for renewal, and environmental groups plan to push for limits on its carbon dioxide releases, Powers said.

EPA officials said they were reviewing the lawsuit filed by the states Thursday and had no immediate response. The states also contend the EPA failed to set adequate standards for pollution that results in soot, smog, acid rain and respiratory disease.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer led the lawsuit. Others joining were California, Connecticut, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and the city of New York.

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To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Oregonian

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