Isra-Mart srl:Republicans launch bills to permanently block EPA climate rules

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Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday intensified efforts to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the right to regulate greenhouse gases, formally introducing two new bills that would permanently block the watchdog from enforcing climate-related rules.

Entitled the Energy Tax Prevention Act, the bills were presented by congressman Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and senator James Inhofe, who is renowned as a long-standing climate change sceptic.

They would overturn recent EPA rules governing emissions from vehicles, power stations and industrial plants, and effectively block the agency from acting on a Supreme Court ruling that concluded it could regulate emissions under the existing Clean Air Act.

Republicans said the bills were necessary to protect the economy and prevent legislative overreach from an unelected body.

"The Energy Tax Prevention Act... imposes accountability," said Inhofe in a statement on the new bill. "It takes power away from unelected bureaucrats and puts it where it belongs: in Congress, where the people can and should decide the nation's climate change policy."

Significantly, Republicans have secured a modicum of bi-partisan support from coal-state Democrats similarly concerned about the economic impact of the EPA legislation.

West Virginia Democrat senator Joe Manchin, who infamously ran a campaign ad last year in which he shot a copy of the Obama administration's climate bill with a rifle, said he would support the Republican bill, while Democrat congressmen Collin Peterson, Nick Rahall and Dan Boren also broke ranks to sign on to the legislation.

However, other Democrats were swift to condemn the bill while the Obama administration signaled that the president would veto any legislation that would strip the White House of its primary mechanisms for tackling greenhouse gas emissions.

The bill is likely to pass through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but will struggle to gain the 60 votes required in the Senate, given the sweeping ban on the EPA regulating greenhouse gas emissions in any form.

But there has been speculation that the bill could help secure support for compromise legislation put forward by Democrat Jay Rockefeller that would block the EPA from regulating emissions for just two years while retaining current rules to improve vehicle emissions standards.

Republicans yesterday released a number of letters from business groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, which praised the new bill.

However, businesses remain largely divided on the EPA's efforts to regulate emissions with many companies, including power firm NRG Energy, also voicing support for new emissions rules.

The administration and the EPA have also repeatedly rejected Republican accusations that the rules will damage the economy, pointing to a series of independent studies that suggest regulations requiring firms to use the most efficient available technology when undertaking upgrade projects will drive investment and create jobs.

The bills formed the centrepiece of a fractious day on Capitol Hill for the administration's environmental agenda as interior secretary Ken Salazar faced hostile questions from Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee over restrictions on offshore drilling and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson was forced to defend the agency's actions to the House Appropriations subcommittee.

In related news, the Department of Energy continued with its renewable energy push yesterday, offering a $102m loan guarantee to support a proposed 50MW wind farm in Maine.