Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05

EPA Administrator Johnson Visits ASU

Story by Ron Fitzwater

Stephen L. Johnson, the 11th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was at ASU last weekend. Johnson visited the Department of Technology to recognize ASU’s second consecutive win of the $75,000 EPA P3 Award at the National Sustainable Design Expo for the Affordable Bioshelters project and delivered the commencement speech for the college of Arts and Sciences’ graduation Saturday.

At a press gathering last Friday afternoon, Johnson spoke about ASU’s achievement and the role of the EPA under his guidance.

ASU’s P3 Award

“We at EPA are very interested in promoting innovation and technology that we can bring to the marketplace,” Johnson said. “What’s very exciting about being at ASU is that for the last couple of years they have been a big winner in our P3 awards. We just had an awards ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. and we had all of their projects on display on The Mall in front of the Capitol building and what was so exciting is seeing all the technology that can be used by the everyday American.”

Last year, ASU won a P3 award for the Collaborative Biodiesal project

“Energy and environmental issues are some of our major areas of interest, Johnson continued, “and here at ASU they have been doing great work with biodiesel and converting grease waste from restaurants into fuel that can power our cars and trucks in an environmentally friendly way and working to help make greenhouses work more efficient and effective among other projects. We are very excited about the work they have done and we are excited to see the work go from the laboratory to the street and homes.”

Climate Change

Johnson discussed the work he has been involved in since he took office in May 2005, with global warming at the top of his list of topics.

“Global climate change is a problem that’s been recognized by the scientific community, by the president and certainly by myself as head of the EPA,” he said. “As a nation under the leadership of President Bush, America has invested $35 billion from 2001 to the present in trying to understand the science and develop the technologies to address it and even provide some tax incentives.”

Johnson outlined the administration’s position on the global warming debate. “The best term we all should be using is global climate change because the impact is that it actually could be warming in some areas and cooling in other areas. It is a global climate change and it is a problem. That is why we have invested as much as we have and why we continue to invest.”

The problem, according to Johnson, “is not only here in the United States, and the EPA has taken a very active and aggressive role not only to be aggressive here in the U.S. but also reaching out to our international partners, particularly in developed countries like China, India, South Korea and Brazil. We are actually one of the few nations to be actively working with developing countries and nations to help them address the issues of not only pollution but particularly global climate change.”

Johnson explained that working with other countries gives a clearer picture of improvements that the United States need to make by comparison: “We are taking very aggressive steps here in the U.S., but it’s also very important to work with all of our international partners, particularly those in developing nations because they will have an impact on our environment. Putting it into perspective, China within the next five years will begin using about five times the coal that the U.S. is currently using. In that same time period they are expected to have the same number of automobiles that the U.S. has. Again, that is just China and there are other developing countries with similar problems,” Johnson said.

Carbon Emissions

In a recent 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the responsibility for regulating carbon-monoxide emissions belongs to the EPA. Johnson explained that the EPA must first clarify its responsibilities before deciding how best to address the issues. “With the Supreme Court decision, we are now very intently looking at what exactly the Supreme Court said and how that fits within the context of the science we know, so I can make decisions responsibly and expeditiously,” Johnson explained. “The decisions that I make following the Supreme Court ruling will have a lasting impact on future regulation, the nation, as well as the globe.”

Interstate Pollution

Johnson explained that another major area of concern since he has been in office is the problem of pollutants crossing state lines. “One of my first things that I did after taking office was to institute the Clean Air Interstate Rule which is a regulation that regulates sulfur-dioxide and nitrous-oxide in coal-fired power plants across the nation,” Johnson said. “We put in place cap and trade programs so that across the nation they will have to achieve, over a period of years, a 70 percent reduction in emissions. Those emissions affect us and the environment so this is significant.” Johnson continued, “To give you some idea of the cost of that one regulation, it’s going to cost the coal-fired power plant industry about $50 billion. But the health benefits associated with that are many times that $50 billion, so it’s clearly something that is needed we have put it into place and we are going to begin seeing results over the coming years.”

Johnson explained that the problem must be settled in a bipartisan manner. “Pollution knows no political or geographic boundary and that is why we have to work together.”