Murkowski blasts EPA emissions regulation

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has injected her own form of pressure into the latest political wrangling over the nation's climate change policy. Calling regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency of greenhouses gases under the Clean Air Act the absolute "worst" option, on Monday Murkowski put Congress and the White House on notice that she intends to seek a congressional veto of the EPA's "steady march" toward a "command and control" approach.

The veto push comes by way of a "resolution of disapproval," which Murkowski plans to submit should the EPA move forward with its plans to seek regulatory jurisdiction.

On Dec. 7, the EPA determined that carbon dioxide is one of six greenhouse gases that "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations." The finding places the agency one step closer to regulation of vehicle emissions, and also, Murkowski warns, to regulation of any large-quantity emitters of CO2 and other atmospheric pollutants, driving business and government dangerously toward a bureaucratic nightmare and the economy into financial calamity.

Where global warming and ocean acidification are considered the "twin evils" of climate change, Murkowski spoke at length about the bureaucratic and economic evils a rushed and ill-conceived policy approach to reducing emissions will bear as businesses, schools, hospitals, farms and landfills are forced to retrofit facilities to reduce their carbon footprint, and of the administrative gridlock that will ensue as EPA permitting processes become overwhelmed, thwarting construction while businesses wait for regulatory approval.

Jobs will be lost, business may close their doors, domestic energy production will decline, dependence on foreign energy suppliers will increase and housing will become more expensive, Murkowski said.

While Murkowski acknowledged that Congress is nowhere close to a solution of its own, she said it was inappropriate to "hold a gun to its head" by threatening the inevitability of EPA's looming oversight if congress doesn't swiftly come up with its own plan.

"It's difficult to grasp how or why Congress would feel compelled to enact economically damaging legislation in order to stave off economically damaging regulation. We're being presented with a false choice that should be rejected outright," Murkowski urged during her statement on the Senate floor.

Late Monday, at least one environmental group was critical of the senator's strategy.