Senate Democrats Add Weight To GOP Challenge Of EPA CO2 Rules

By Ian Talley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Senate Republicans seeking to prevent the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases got a big boost late last week after eight coal-state Democrats sent a letter questioning the environment agency's climate policies.

The lawmakers, including heavyweights like Max Baucus (D., Mont.), Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and John Rockefeller (D., W.Va.), warned Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson they're seriously concerned about the potential economic and energy impacts of new regulations the agency is drafting to regulate greenhouse gases.

"EPA actions in this area would have enormous implications and these issues need to be handled carefully and appropriately dealt with by the Congress, not in isolation by a federal environmental agency," Rockefeller said in a press statement.

In the letter, the senators say they "remain concerned about the possible impacts on American workers and businesses in a number of industrial sectors, along with the farmers, miners, and small business owners who could be affected."

The lawmakers warned that "ill-timed or imprudent regulation of [greenhouse gases] may squander critical opportunities for our nation, impeding the investment necessary to create jobs."

Led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Republicans want to prevent the EPA from regulating stationary greenhouse gas emitters such as power plants, refineries, steel mills, chemical plants and cement kilns.

The Obama administration says it prefers Congress forges a bill that caps emissions across the economy and creates a market to trade the emission rights. In the absence of lawmaker action, the EPA has put regulating gases such as carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act on a fast-track. Analysts say that the EPA's action is partly designed to pressure Congress to act and to assure other countries of Washington's intentions.

Given that the EPA and analysts have said that EPA regulations will be more expensive and more of a policy sledgehammer compared to a crafted legislative solution, Murkowski's proposal puts many moderate and Midwestern Democrats in a tough political position, especially in an election year. A good number of those lawmakers hails from states that largely rely on emission-intensive industries and power.

By all accounts, EPA regulation will increase the cost of doing business across the economy.

The EPA was immediately able to comment.

Although it's unclear if Rockefeller's colleagues will join him, the West Virginia Democrat said he's drafting legislation that would also force the EPA to temporarily suspend its authority to regulate greenhouse gases, "to allow sufficient time for Congressional consideration of the nation's larger energy policy and economic needs."

Some on Capitol Hill have questioned whether the Democrats who signed the letter are building political cover for the debate over Murkowski's proposal, expected to come to the floor for consideration in March or April.

"I commend my colleagues for becoming more engaged in this important issue and hope they will show their commitment by signing on as co-sponsors of the disapproval resolution," Murkowski said in an emailed statement. "It's time to take the threat of EPA's command-and-control regulations off the table."

Late last year, several dozen state regulators - including California's, which has long supported federal climate regulations - asked the EPA to at the very least delay implementation of new rules. They warned their agencies didn't have the funding or staff to handle the expected influx of permits if the EPA moved too soon.

Apropos of the oft-acrid debate on climate policy, the Union of Concerned Scientists sent fliers out to the public late last week depicting sickly looking children with aspirators and inhalers in front of dark smokestacks. The flier reads, "If Senator Murkowski has her way on pollution, it will be harder for us all to breathe," and her "resolution would block the Environmental Protection Agency from fulfilling its mission to protect public health."

The Democrats' letter also coincides with a legal challenge of the EPA's ruling that greenhouse gases represent a danger to public health and welfare, the trigger for regulations. Three state attorneys general and a raft of energy and manufacturing organizations have asked the Washington, D.C., federal court of appeals to force the EPA to review its finding. It will hear opening arguments in late March.

Both the legal and congressional challenges will also help shape the public debate the Senate's reconsideration of the economywide climate bill.

- By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 862 9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com