Change is comin’ and highway-happy Wisconsin Department of Transportation and coal-addicted We Energies are going to have to change their ways.

From the International Herald Tribune:

WASHINGTON: The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

The impacts would be enormous, and raise important questions about the state’s transportation and energy policies.

Lisa Jackson, the new EPA administrator, said in an interview that she had asked her staff to review the latest scientific evidence and prepare the documentation for a so-called endangerment finding. Jackson said she had not decided to issue such a finding but she pointedly noted that the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, is April 2, and there is the wide expectation that she will act by then.

“We here know how momentous that decision could be,” Jackson said. “We have to lay out a road map.”

One that may not include road-centric transportation policies or coal-heavy energy policies.