With White House Approval, E.P.A. Pollution Report Omits Global Warming Section

[Guest guest]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/politics/15CLIM.html

September 15, 2002

With White House Approval, E.P.A. Pollution Report Omits Global Warming

Section

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

For the first time in six years, the annual federal report on air pollution

trends has no section on global warming, though President Bush has said that

slowing the growth of emissions linked to warming is a priority for his

administration.

The decision to delete the chapter on climate change was made by top

officials at the Environmental Protection Agency with White House approval,

White House officials said.

" Some people at pretty high levels in my organization were saying, `Take it

out,' " said an E.P.A. official outside Washington who helped prepare the

report. Others at the agency confirmed his account.

Agency officials say the decision was made for two reasons: the agency has

issued two other reports on climate this year, and the annual report is

mainly meant to track pollutants that directly threaten people or

ecosystems - substances like lead, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, which

causes acid rain.

The report, released early this month, is an overview intended for the

public that draws on more detailed E.P.A. data on air pollution trends. Most

emissions have been sharply reduced in the last decade, but not carbon

dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that most scientists say is the main

contributor to global warming. Most carbon dioxide comes from burning fossil

fuels.

Industry lobbyists are praising the decision. Coal, oil and car companies

say carbon dioxide, which occurs naturally, should not be labeled a

pollutant. But environmental groups say the omission reflects the

administration's close ties with industry.

" White House censors may have made global warming disappear from this

report, but that won't make it disappear as a serious threat to our

environment, " said Symons, an authority on climate policy at the

National Wildlife Federation.

Mr. Bush said last year that carbon dioxide appeared to be linked to rising

temperatures, and he has since said that voluntary measures should be taken

to slow emissions but that the evidence is not yet clear enough to require

reductions.

The new report, " Latest Findings on National Air Quality: 2001 Status and

Trends, " is online, with those from previous years, at:

epa.gov/airtrends/reports.html.

Published since the 1970's, the reports have focused on air pollution

restricted under the Clean Air Act as directly harming human health or

ecosystems. But starting in 1996, the report also included sections on

emissions that affect the global atmosphere, including chemicals that damage

the ozone layer and carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The latest report has a section on the ozone-depleting chemicals, which are

rapidly being reduced under the 15-year-old Montreal Protocol. But there is

no section on climate change.

Global warming is mentioned twice: once in a note in fine print at the

bottom of the table of contents, listing agency Web sites with climate data,

and once in a paragraph that refers, apparently by mistake, to the omitted

section on climate.

" Although the primary focus of this report is on national air pollution, "

the paragraph says, " global air pollution issues such as destruction of the

stratospheric ozone layer and the effect of global warming on the earth's

climate are major concerns and are also discussed. "

Environmental and conservative groups have accused the administration of

sowing confusion on the climate issue.

In late May, the White House approved a climate report that was then

submitted by the State Department to the United Nations, though it contained

far more dire projections of harm from global warming than Mr. Bush had

publicly accepted. The president quickly distanced himself from the report,

saying it was " put out by the bureaucracy. " New copies of the report have

been changed to emphasize scientific uncertainty about the effects of global

warming. Some officials at the E.P.A. said the handling of that State

Department report heightened concern about climate documents, prompting the

changes in the new report.

" There's a complete paranoia about anything on climate, and everything has

to be reviewed widely, " an agency official said.

Other officials said the report was changed to avoid redundancy with earlier

documents and to draw a line between carbon dioxide and pollutants that fall

under air quality rules.

The annual report focuses on pollutants " that pose a local and regional

threat to human health and the environment, " said Joe Martyak, a spokesman

for the agency. " The whole issue of climate change doesn't fall under that

category. "

The change in the document was welcomed by Myron Ebell, an authority on

climate policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

" After such a long string of disasters on climate, this is the first glimmer

of good news, " he said. " If they have now gotten clear with the E.P.A. that

they're not in the business of regulating CO2, that's a hopeful sign. "

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company