EPA's inspector general says agency needed better review to back greenhouse-gas regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general issued a report this week concluding that EPA should have conducted a more detailed review of scientific findings about climate change before issuing regulations based on a belief that greenhouse gases pose a great threat to human health. The inspector general said EPA should have used more peer-reviewed scientific assessments because the findings were not publicly reported and one of the 12 people who reviewed the findings was an agency employee.

Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post reports these findings won't directly affect new air-pollution regulations, but may hurt EPA's credibility and give those who think the agency is overstepping its bounds a reason to question its recommendations. It's not clear whether or not these findings will affect litigation that industries affected by the regulations have filed in federal court. Republican Sen. James Inhofe, a climate-change skeptic who requested the probe, said its findings bring into question EPA's conclusion that carbon-dioxide emissions qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

The inspector general's report also concluded that EPA met legal requirements to issue its "endangerment finding" that is the basis for federal limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. An EPA spokeswoman defended the agency's decision, saying it disagrees with its independent inspector general because it followed all necessary guidelines. She said the agency went through a "thorough and deliberate process" to arrive at its findings, including a review of peer-reviewed science. (Read more)