Forcing Change on Climate Change

April 3, 2005 – Vol.10 No.2

FORCING CHANGE ON CLIMATE CHANGE.

Twelve U.S. states, three U.S. cities and number of organizations are once again attempting to use legal means to force the U.S. EPA to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.

The petitioners to a federal appeals court claim the Clean Air Act is meant to protect public health. Climate change and global warming are hazardous to health or welfare, they say. (People could die from global-warming-caused extreme climatic and weather events who otherwise wouldn’t have. Flooding from rising oceans could damage people’s welfare. Destroy their homes, for instance.)

As usual the EPA is saying no. It doesn’t have jurisdiction. Carbon dioxide from cars, they say, can be reduced only by increasing fuel economy, which isn’t their business. Fuel economy is set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) under guidance from Congress.

Eleven states are siding with the EPA as are the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Convenience Stores and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The states challenging the EPA in court are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, along with the U.S. territory of American Samoa and the cities of Baltimore, New York and Washington, D.C.

If action on climate change doesn’t come from the courts there are other groups that may force the issue - homeowners and insurance companies.

According to a story from the Associated Press, property insurance companies are canceling policies on homes near the shoreline, even demanding that homeowners buy additional coverage if they live within 2 miles of the ocean (up to five miles inland in low-lying New Jersey.)

For people whose policies are dropped (or they can’t afford to self-insure: keep enough money in the bank to rebuild their home and property) they are forced to buy insurance offered by the states known as Fair Access to Insurance Requirements or FAIR plans. That insurance is often 50-percent higher than commercial plans.

Last year, because of the four major hurricanes that hit the U.S., insurance companies paid out a whopping $27.3 billion in claims.

The population along the U.S. East and Gulf Coast was 66.8 million in 1980, 86 million by 2003, and is expected to be 90 million by 2008 - three years from now.

That’s a lot of homeowners. A lot of insurance policies. And, according to studies released previously through the National Weather Service, the rise in the number of hurricanes may not be temporary. We could be in a multi-decade cycle. This year could be just like 2004. Or not.