The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) were among nearly 100 industry trade groups who recently submitted a letter to the Senate urging support of a resolution that would revoke the U.S. EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act.
The Senate is slated in the near term to take up consideration of S.J. Res. 26, a resolution introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would nullify EPA’s finding in December 2009 that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and therefore could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Reps. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn,) have introduced their own disapproval resolution (H.J. Res. 66) in the House.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson late last year announced a timetable for EPA to start regulating industrial GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act, saying EPA will target large facilities beginning in 2011, but will wait until 2016 to require smaller plants to comply. She also predicted the agency will likely raise its proposed threshold of 25,000 tons per year in GHG emissions to determine which facilities must obtain EPA permits.
In their letter to Congress, the industry groups said S.J. Res. 26 addresses “several fundamental problems” with allowing EPA to pursue its regulatory course, including charges that EPA is ignoring “explicit statutory language defining what is a major source” of GHG emissions. They also said that even though smaller business would be exempt from permitting for GHG emissions until 2016, “we are greatly concerned that small businesses, small farms, hospitals, and small manufacturers will be brought under a regulatory regime that will be expensive, onerous, and crippling to our economy – while providing little to no environmental benefit.” The industry groups further charged that allowing EPA to move forward with the rule would establish a “breathtaking legal precedent” for expanding EPA’s regulatory authority.
“TFI believes that allowing EPA to regulate GHGs would set a negative precedent for policy making, directly allowing the Agency to redefine statutory language in order to expand its regulatory authority,” said TFI President Ford B. West. “The nation will continue to debate policy decisions regarding climate change and we believe that these discussions should take place in the U.S. Congress. We are pleased to see that S.J. Res. 26 is already receiving so much bipartisan support and strongly urge all Senators to vote in favor of the resolution.”
The Senate and House disapproval resolutions have been greeted with scorn by environmental groups. “These ‘Dirty Air Acts’ are little more than political attempts to gut the most important tool we currently have to reduce these harmful air emissions and protect public health,” said the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “For decades, the Clean Air Act has kept millions of tons of pollutants out of our air and water, and this attack would give the nation’s largest polluters like coal and oil companies a free pass to continue releasing global warming emissions that endanger public health and our rapidly warming environment.”