White House eyes veto if Senate curbs EPA climate power

The White House on Tuesday threatened a presidential veto if Congress passes a measure to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (left), a Republican from Alaska, is leading an effort against looming EPA regulation and has 40 co-sponsors for the bill, which is set for a vote on Thursday.

"The EPA intends to take control of climate policy; take it away from the Congress," Murkowski told reporters. She complained that EPA climate control regulations would cost businesses "billions of dollars" and added that her legislation "is about protecting the economy and preventing agency overreach."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, asked by reporters about prospects for defeating Murkowski, said: "I don't know. Counts are being made ... It appears we're going to be okay, but we'll never know until the vote takes place."

Murkowski's effort has sparked a clash with President Barack Obama, who wants the EPA to have powers to set limits on industrial emissions and other pollutants if Congress fails to enact its own legislation to fight climate change.

A climate bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives a year ago, but a similar effort is bogged down in the Senate.

Congressional and private sector sources said on Monday the Murkowski plan would fail unless it found new last-minute support. Even if it did pass the Senate, the House of Representatives also would have to approve the controversial measure before Obama got an opportunity to veto it.

White House officials have been fighting her efforts for months. Obama is under international pressure to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for helping to heat the Earth, while the United Nations attempts to agree on a pact that would curb emissions worldwide.

The White House said on Tuesday the Murkowski resolution would hurt the government's ability to combat climate change.

"If the president is presented with this Resolution of Disapproval, which would seriously disrupt EPA's ability to address the threat of GHG (greenhouse gas) pollution, as well as the multi-agency Federal GHG and fuel economy program, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the resolution," it said in a statement.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the right to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The White House said the Murkowski measure would hinder the agency's ability to comply with the court.

PREFERENCE FOR LEGISLATION

Obama and his advisers still prefer legislation to fight climate change over EPA regulation, but the latter has served as a convenient option that the administration can cite at U.N. talks in the event a more general law is not passed.

"The administration believes that comprehensive energy and climate legislation is the most effective way to transition to a clean energy economy that will create jobs, protect the environment, and increase national security," the White House said, reiterating that position.

"(The resolution) would do just the opposite; it would increase the nation's dependence on oil and other fossil fuels and block efforts to cut pollution that threatens our health and well-being."

Republican Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming defended the resolution, calling proposed EPA regulations "a hidden tax" and, like Murkowski, called it "an overreach" by government bureaucrats.

"In a big city, people are breathing out CO2 all the time. Will that affect the Clean Air Act?" he asked reporters.

Activists largely side with Obama. Environmental group Earthjustice painted Thursday's vote as a test of senators allegiance as the country battles the huge environmental disaster resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"Which senators are on the side of big, influential, dirty fossil fuel industries at this moment of man-made crisis in American history?" the group said in a statement.

"And which are on the side of the American people and working to guarantee us a clean and healthy future? We will know the answer on Thursday."

Source:
Reuters, "White House eyes veto if Senate curbs EPA climate power", accessed June 7, 2010