GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

Murkowski To Announce EPA Amendment Plans

Sen. Lisa Murkowski will announce her plans tomorrow for a measure to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

A spokesman says the Alaska Republican will deliver a floor speech in which she will say whether she plans to offer an amendment to the debt ceiling bill or file a disapproval resolution.

Murkowski's spokesman says the senator believes Congress should have a legitimate policy debate on the potential impact on the economy of EPA regulation of greenhouse gases and an up or down vote on whether the EPA should be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA late last year issued its controversial finding that greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to human health and welfare in response to a 2007 order from the Supreme Court, which found that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and that the EPA has the authority to regulate it. It has already set the stage for regulation with emissions reporting rules for large, stationary sources, and proposed regulations are due out later this year.

Murkowski has called the move a "thinly-veiled threat, intended to force Congress to pass climate legislation," even though she believes a good bill is not yet close to completion.

Both EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and President Obama have said they would prefer that Congress address the issue, but they believe that the agency needs to respond to the Supreme Court order, and that regulations are needed if Congress does not act.

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