Washington (Platts)--12Jan2010/635 pm EST/2335 GMT

Majority members of the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are urging their colleagues in the chamber to join them in trying to defeat a potential amendment from Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican-Alaska, that would block federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The 11 committee Democrats, including Chairwoman Barbara Boxer of California, and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont are circulating a letter that says the US Senate "will continue to evaluate the best tools for addressing greenhouse gas emissions" and that it is "inappropriate" to halt action by the US Environmental Protection Agency in this area as well.

Murkowski is considering whether to offer an amendment that would stop EPA from moving on regulation of GHGs or a "disapproval resolution" to overturn the agency's "endangerment finding" on pollutants linked to climate change. Murkowski is expected to offer one of the two for a vote by the full Senate in the week starting January 18.

EPA in December finalized an "endangerment finding" against carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as a threat to public health and safety, a move that launches the agency's authority to regulate GHG emissions for the first time under the Clean Air Act.

The finding was in answer to a 2007 US Supreme Court ruling that EPA has the authority to regulate GHGs as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act once the agency found that these emissions endanger the public welfare.

The committee Democrats in their Monday letter, which was made public Tuesday, said "repealing an endangerment finding based upon years of work by America's scientists and public health experts is not appropriate."

--Cathy Cash, cathy_cash@platts.com