The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has announced it will mount a legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Steven J. Law, the chamber’s chief legal counsel, said the business group would not question the science behind global warming but rather would challenge the process by which the EPA decided it had the right to control carbon dioxide emissions as a threat to human health.
The Obama administration has said it would prefer that Congress pass a law regulating carbon emissions, but with the passage of such a law looking increasingly unlikely, a battle is shaping up over the EPA’s possible efforts to control CO2 emissions.
Sixteen states and New York City have backed the EPA effort, but some senators — including Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski — have vowed to pass legislation blocking the EPA from regulating CO2 emissions. Murkowski’s office has harshly criticized a group affiliated with Greenpeace for releasing a video mocking Murkowski’s efforts to stymie controls on CO2 emissions.
The group, PolluterWatch, launched a Web site called PolluterHarmony.com, a spoof — mimicking the dating site eHarmony — in which Murkowski is lampooned as being the perfect match for polluters and energy industry lobbyists.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
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