On his blog, Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, predicts that any attempt by the EPA to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) will result in a flood of litigation by the fossil-fuel industries that will continue for years.

Reich notes that the Obama administration has attempted to use the specter of EPA regulation as a threat to move cap & trade legislation through the Congress before the Copenhagen meeting. Since that is now highly unlikely, Mr. Reich advises the administration to put the legislation on the back-burner until health-care is passed. Mr. Reich also suggests that the administration should commit to even higher GHG reductions, so President Obama has something, rather than “empty hands” to take to Copenhagen.

Photo: NASA images

KJC