Current climate legislation and the Kyoto Protocol are undermining the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Or so contends a cautionary article that appeared in October's peer-reviewed journal of Science.

The authors, led by Timothy D. Searchinger of Princeton University, wrote in their essay, "Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error," that these climate agreements do not account for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from biomass in their overall estimates.

CO2 is considered the number one contributor to anthropogenic climate change.

As a result, the accounting in these statutes treats all biomass energy as carbon neutral despite its source. Biomass is a product of wood debris or other living or recently living plants.

The notion in some pro-biomass circles is that biomass is a renewable resource. As plants grow, they absorb carbon and when it is burned it converts the plant's carbon back into atmospheric CO2. The result, as interpreted by the Kyoto Protocol, is that burning biomass must then be carbon neutral.

Not necessarily, argues Searchinger and his colleagues, which includes researchers from Duke University, Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Michigan State University, among others. Their discontent relies heavily on the fact that our forests act as carbon sinks, or areas of land that store excessive CO2 and other sediments. Without carbon sinks, the effects of global warming could be exacerbated immensely.

Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that global warming pollution endangered the health and welfare of Americans and must be reduced, a move that seemed timed to signal that the U.S. is serious about joining an international bid to reduce the risks of damaging climate change.

Monday's finding means that the EPA will proceed with preparations to regulate large producers of greenhouse gas emissions. Those rules could take effect if Congress doesn't pass legislation.

Nonetheless, it probably would be years before new EPA rules took effect for existing coal-fired power plants, the main source of heat-trapping gases. The Obama administration prefers to have Congress do that work through a climate and energy law.

The EPA's action follows a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ordered a reluctant Bush administration to determine whether greenhouse gases endanger America's health and welfare. The court ruled that if the EPA found that the pollution was dangerous, it was required under the Clean Air Act to tackle the problem. Monday's announcement was the agency's final decision on this "endangerment finding."

The decision came as 15,000 people from 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen for the first day of talks aimed at reaching a climate agreement. A major part of the agreement is what countries will pledge to do to reduce emissions. U.S. negotiators plan to point to efforts of all parts of the government, including the EPA, Congress and the Energy Department, as evidence that the U.S. will reduce its share of the heat-trapping gases that accumulate in the atmosphere.