Ways to make new EPA rules feasible.

• Position: Ecology

The Environmental Protection Agency could have a workable, cost-effective plan for regulating large emitters of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, according to a report by Duke University's Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Durham, N.C. The guide lines suggest not only the potential for regulating greenhouse gases under Section 111 of the Act, but forecast the possible legal challenges the agency could face when designing standards to help refineries, power plants, and other facilities comply with the EPA's new rules for pollution control.

"There is a lot of concern on Capitol Hill that regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act would be a messy,"' notes Jonas Monast, co-director of the Climate Change Policy Partnership. "Addressing climate change while maintaining political support requires a sensible, cost-effective approach. The EPA has the tools to strike that balance."

The report indicates regulation under Section 111 could:

* Allow the EPA to design a sector-based approach for regulating sources that could be tailored to different areas of the economy to help minimize the cost of compliance.

* Start a regulatory program more quickly since some standards for controlling pollutants already exist under the section.

* Provide covered entities flexibility in meeting more stringent regulatory standards by establishing a market-based carbon-trading program for the utility sector that could be expanded to include others later.

The report acknowledges there will be hurdles...