Just got word today about a coming meeting of the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission that ought to be interesting.

It’s scheduled June 27. The commission will hear a request from the Audubon Arkansas Society, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project to change Arkansas regulations so that carbon dioxide will be considered a pollutant, which would be in keeping with the United States Supreme Court ruling noting its association with climate change. Read the petition here.

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“Simply put,” it says, “the more CO2 humans release into the atmosphere, the more serious impacts on public health and the environment.”

The petiton asks for no curbs or no regulations, only that the state’s definition of the gas be changed to “reflect current mainstream scientific consensus” and comport with the federal law.

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Well.

The so-called Arkansas Environmental Federation (a better name would be the Arkansas Association of Polluters) is up in arms. It argues the change would require new permits and warns that the Sierra Club has been known to go to court against regulatory agencies “that do not fully enforce environmental regulations.” The gall! Enforce environmental rules fully?

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Should be a donnybrook.

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