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More Support on Capitol Hill for Blocking EPA

The sectors of agriculture that would like to see the Environmental Protection Agency halt efforts to regulate greenhouse gases may have an ally. Executives and lobbyists for more than two dozen trade groups are working on the possibility of cooperating in a legal challenge, including the possibility of pooling resources to hire counsel. No consensus or definite course of action has emerged.

Representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Public Power Association, the Edison Electric Institute and more than a dozen other groups have been meeting on the issue. 

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, more lawmakers are falling in line behind Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and her resolution that would block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under clean air laws. In fact, the resolution now has 37 cosponsors, including a few Democrats. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says she will co-sponsor the resolution. Lincoln noted the heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost jobs and put the U.S. at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is also voicing his support for the Murkowski resolution. Senator Chambliss said the EPA's actions would hurt the U.S. agriculture economy, causing our producers to face significantly higher energy and input costs and take millions of acres of farmland out of production, just like the House and Senate cap and trade bills.

Nearly 150 agriculture and forestry groups have sent a letter of support for the resolution. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman says support for the resolution could not have come at a better time. According to Stallman, the EPA's proposal to regulate greenhouse gases is all about propping up seriously flawed cap-and-trade climate legislation being considered in Congress.

Representative Joe Barton, R-Texas, says he plans to introduce an identical resolution in the House Friday. But, what will happen if EPA does write rules covering greenhouse gas emissions under clean air laws?  According to the groups rising in opposition to the EPA, EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare will trigger Clean Air Act regulatory actions such as application of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, New Source Performance Standards, and provisions of the Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V programs, essentially establishing greenhouse gas policy through the CAA by default.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson recently acknowledged that unilateral actions by the United States would have no material impact on global warming. EPA's finding puts the agricultural economy at grave risk based on allegations of a weak, indirect link to public health and welfare and despite the lack of any environmental benefit.