Documents Show US E.P.A. Wants to Erase Greenhouse Gas Limits on Power Plants | The agency plans to argue that carbon emissions from power plants do not contribute “significantly” to climate change. Scientists disagree.

2 comments

1. For context, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, including CO2, are responsible for [approximately all of the warming that has happened in recent decades](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/figures/summary-for-policymakers/figure-spm-1/), with [carbon dioxide being the largest part of that](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/figures/summary-for-policymakers/figure-spm-2/), and [human activity, including fossil fuel burning, is substantially responsible for that increase in CO2 concentration](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf#page=48):

   > Based on multiple lines of evidence using interhemispheric gradients of CO2 concentrations, isotopes, and inventory data, it is unequivocal that the growth in CO2 in the atmosphere since 1750 (see Section TS.2.2) is due to the direct emissions from human activities. The combustion of fossil fuels and land-use change for the period 1750–2019 resulted in the release of 700 ± 75 PgC (likely range, 1 PgC = 1015 g of carbon) to the atmosphere, of which about 41% ± 11% remains in the atmosphere today (high confidence). Of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions, the combustion of fossil fuels was responsible for about 64% ± 15%, growing to an 86% ±14% contribution over the past 10 years.

2. What’s next, Catalytic converters? Darn it, I should not be giving them any ideas!

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