Save the Clean Air Act to Fight Global Warming Scientific
consensus is clear: We must reduce the level of atmospheric
carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million (ppm) or below to avoid
global catastrophe. Unfortunately, pending climate legislation
isn't going to get us to 350 ppm -- but the Clean Air Act could.
To reach 350 ppm, carbon pollution from the United States and
other developed countries must be reduced by 45 percent or more
below 1990 levels by 2020. But the Senate climate bill would
reduce emissions by just 4 percent below those levels. (The
House bill sets even weaker targets.) Clearly, the road map to
350 ppm won't be found in pending legislation. Rather, the path
to achieving 350 ppm must utilize the Clean Air Act, which
provides indispensable tools for reducing pollution from
smokestacks and other big polluters, and also requires the
Environmental Protection Agency to set a science-based national
pollution limit for greenhouse gases. - Under the Act, the EPA
is required to set a limit on the amou