I love that dirty water….

It’s been a 180-degree turn for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with today’s announcement on carbon once again makes clear:

The Obama administration took another step toward regulating carbon dioxide, issuing a notice Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency will review whether those emissions should fall under the Clean Water Act.

The EPA earlier this year determined that C02 should be regulated under the Clean Air Act due to its impact on temperatures. But Tuesday’s notice — soliciting scientific data as to what extent seas are made more acidic by C02 — could extend regulation out to U.S. waters.

The notice was in response to a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, which wants the EPA to impose stricter pH criteria for ocean water quality and publish guidance to help states protect their waters from ocean acidification, which reduces pH levels.

“As more CO2 dissolves in the ocean, it reduces ocean pH, which changes the chemistry of the water,” the EPA said in its notice. “These changes present potential risks across a broad spectrum of marine ecosystems.”

And so, maybe, we still have a fighting chance to reverse this thing.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet