Planning to take in one of those great fireworks displays on the Fourth of July? Be careful. Those fireworks may leave you and your family with more than a patriotic feeling. Fireworks pollution litters the ground, contaminates water supplies, and rains down chemicals and heavy metals that contribute to a wide range of serious health problems. Maybe it's time for a change in the way we celebrate our independence.
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The White House is trying to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from releasing a document that shows how the Clean Air Act could be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal, whose reporters have seen the document and spoken to EPA staff about it.

The draft document is a formal response to the April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that declared greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and other vehicles. But the EPA can’t make the document public until the White House approves it, and that’s where things have gotten sticky.

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