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Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 7:59PM EDT - U.S. Markets
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<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3382.Yahoo/B5116950.8;abr=!ie;sz=150x30;pc=[TPAS_ID];click=http://global.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=15umc8rb1/M=601783366.602850899.828879551.828879551/D=fin/S=2142203358:NE3/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1317434363/L=ioiZydG_R1ceeeE.ToSdgQDkQnFv_U6GV9oADpQd/B=J5giBUJe5iY-/J=1317427163405717/K=aCxNK6dufSBNWeLd7sMAJQ/A=3560010564270340046/R=2/X=3/*;dcopt=rcl;mtfIFPath=nofile;ord=1317427163405717"></SCRIPT><NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://global.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=15umc8rb1/M=601783366.602850899.828879551.828879551/D=fin/S=2142203358:NE3/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1317434363/L=ioiZydG_R1ceeeE.ToSdgQDkQnFv_U6GV9oADpQd/B=J5giBUJe5iY-/J=1317427163405717/K=aCxNK6dufSBNWeLd7sMAJQ/A=3560010564270340046/R=0/X=3/SIG=13mf7kfec/*http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3382.Yahoo/B5116950.8;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=150x30;pc=[TPAS_ID];ord=1317427163405717?"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N3382.Yahoo/B5116950.8;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=150x30;pc=[TPAS_ID];ord=1317427163405717?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=30 ALT="Advertisement"></A></NOSCRIPT>

Report: EPA cut corners on climate finding

Report: EPA cut corners on key scientific document supporting controls on
greenhouse gases

Dina Cappiello,
Associated Press, On Wednesday September 28, 2011,
4:58 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration cut corners before concluding
that climate-change pollution can endanger human health, a key finding
underpinning costly new regulations, an internal government watchdog said
Wednesday.

Regulators and the White House disagreed with the finding, and the report
itself did not question the science behind the administration's conclusions.
Still, the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general
is sure to encourage industry lawyers, global warming doubters in Congress and
elsewhere, and Republicans taking aim at the agency for what they view as an
onslaught of job-killing environmental regulations.

The report said EPA should have followed a more extensive review process for
a technical paper supporting its determination that greenhouse gases pose
dangers to human health and welfare, a finding that ultimately compelled it to
issue controversial and expensive regulations to control greenhouse gases for
the first time.

"While it may be debatable what impact, if any, this had on EPA's finding, it
is clear that EPA did not follow all the required steps," Inspector General
Arthur A. Elkins, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday.

The EPA and White House said the greenhouse gas document did not require more
independent scrutiny because the scientific evidence it was based on already had
been thoroughly reviewed. The agency did have the document vetted by 12 experts,
although one of those worked for EPA.

"The report importantly does not question or even address the science used or
the conclusions reached," the EPA said in a statement. The environmental agency
said its work "followed all appropriate guidance," a conclusion supported by the
White House budget official who wrote the peer review guidelines in 2005.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said repeatedly that her conclusions were
based on the underlying science, not the agency's summary of it.

The greenhouse gas decision -- which marked a reversal from the Bush
administration -- was announced in December 2009, a week before President Barack
Obama headed to international negotiations in Denmark on a new treaty to curb
global warming. At the time, progress was stalled in Congress on a new law to
reduce emissions in the United States.

In 2010, a survey of more than 1,000 of the world's most cited and published
climate scientists found that 97 percent believe climate change is very likely
caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

But by highlighting what it calls "procedural deviations," the report
provides ammunition to Republicans and industry lawyers fighting the Obama
administration over its decision to use the 40-year-old Clean Air Act to fight
global warming. While the Supreme Court said in 2007 that the act could be used
to control greenhouse gases, the Republican-controlled House has passed
legislation that would change that. The bill has so far been stymied by the
Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who requested the investigation
and one of Congress' most vocal climate skeptics, said Wednesday the report
confirmed that "the very foundation of President Obama's job-destroying agenda
was rushed, biased and flawed."

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, another critic of EPA regulations, said the
agency sacrificed scientific protocol for "political expediency."

Environmentalists, meanwhile, said the inspector general was nitpicking at
the public's expense. The investigation cost nearly $300,000.

"The process matters, but the science matters more," said Francesca Grifo, a
senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Nothing in this report
questions the agency's ability to move forward with global warming emissions
rules."

A prominent environmental attorney and Columbia University law professor
questioned what effect, if any, the report would have on global warming policy
or the more than a dozen lawsuits filed by manufacturers, refiners, the state of
Texas and others challenging the EPA's finding.

Michael Gerrard said that while lawyers and politicians would try to use the
report to fight EPA regulations, the scientific case for global warming has only
gotten stronger.

The worst-case scenario for the agency is that a federal judge sends the
document back for reworking, putting its global warming regulations on cars,
trucks, power plants and refineries in limbo.

The report itself found that EPA "generally" adhered to data quality
requirements. But it said while the agency's document was based on
well-established and peer-reviewed science, it required additional independent
scrutiny because the EPA weighed the strength of that science. The inspector
general pointed out that the EPA did not publicly report the results of the
review and that one of the dozen experts who reviewed the document worked at the
agency.

EPA officials said that information was included, but not in the format the
inspector general wanted.

The Obama administration has emphasized the importance of peer review.

Six weeks after taking office in 2009, Obama issued a memo that said: "When
scientific or technological information is considered in policy decisions, the
information should be subject to well-established scientific processes,
including peer review where appropriate, and each agency should appropriately
and accurately reflect that information in complying with and applying relevant
statutory standards."

A year later, the president's science adviser, John Holdren, emphasized the
"particular importance" of outside review by scientists.

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this
story.

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter (at)dinacappiello

Online:

EPA inspector general's report: http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AoifwD_NqYYrSPTYdoBSh2reba9_;_ylu=X3oDMTE2aDhxOTV1BHBvcwMxBHNlYwNuZXdzYXJ0Ym9keQRzbGsDaHR0cHd3d2VwYWdv/SIG=11bn7p4cq/EXP=1318636762/**http%3A//www.epa.gov/oig/

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Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast,
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