Isramart : U.S. Agency Might Try Own Carbon-Trading Program, Official Says

Isramart news:
The Obama administration might pursue a carbon-trading system under existing law if Congress doesn’t pass cap-and-trade legislation that allows companies to buy and sell the right to pollute, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said today.

The existing Clean Air Act “could enable us to include emissions trading” within agency regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to climate change, Anna Marie Wood, a senior policy analyst at the EPA, said at an event in Washington hosted by the American Bar Association.

“We’re considering all that right now and thinking about what might make sense,” Wood said. While the agency “strongly prefers” that Congress pass new laws dealing with greenhouse gases, “we think that there’s a lot of progress that can be made using certain tools under the Clean Air Act.”

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said last week the agency has no plans to independently set up a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. Jackson said she believed Congress will establish a national program. Legislation that narrowly passed the House last year is stalled in the Senate.