Efforts to Block EPA's Greenhouse Gas Regulations Back in Play

ClimateWire (Schor) - Over the past two years, cap-and-trade advocates used the threat of U.S. EPA climate regulations as a key driver in the push for climate legislation on Capitol Hill. Now, Democratic leaders face the challenge of renewed bipartisan interest in handcuffing EPA before it takes action....Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to allow a vote this year on a corresponding two-year EPA postponement proposed by Boucher's fellow coal-state Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. That decision was made to help dissuade senators from backing last month's broader plan to revoke EPA's "endangerment finding" on carbon emissions, according to a Senate Democratic aide (Greenwire, June 10).

EPA rejects challenge to climate rules
Politico (Samuelsohn) - The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming. In a sternly written opinion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she didn’t agree with requests from the GOP attorneys general from Texas and Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups that questioned the underlying science linking humans to global warming and also warned of the potential economic burdens from new climate rules.