Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) plans to introduce a resolution to retroactively veto U.S. EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

EPA last week declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, a determination that sets the stage for broad industry regulations of the heat-trapping emissions.

"I believe that this option should be taken off the table, so that we can focus our attention on more viable policies," Murkowski, ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on the Senate floor today.

The joint resolution would signal congressional disapproval of EPA's finding and would block it from having any force or effect. Murkowski plans to introduce the resolution after EPA submits its finding to Congress or publishes it in the Federal Register, she said. The resolution would require the approval of both chambers of Congress and President Obama to become law.

Murkowski warned that the endangerment finding would threaten jobs and damage economic growth and should not be used as a cudgel to spur Congress to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation. "Make no mistake -- Congress is being threatened in a misguided attempt to move a climate bill forward," she said. "But this strategy is highly flawed because it assumes Congress will pass economically damaging legislation in order to stave off economically damaging regulations. That's a false choice, and it should be rejected outright."

Earlier this year, Murkowski introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2010 EPA spending bill that would have prohibited the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources like power plants and industrial facilities for one year. The proposal was quashed when Senate leadership decided not to allow Murkowski to offer it on the floor under a unanimous consent agreement (Greenwire, Sept. 24).

"She tried this before," said Joe Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "I just think it is absurd. The senator herself has said many times that climate change is ravaging her state."

And while it would be preferable for Congress to implement regulations rather than EPA, Romm added, the EPA authority provides a critical backstop. "Either Congress has to act or EPA has to act, so that's the bottom line."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said EPA's finding is a critical component of the U.S. strategy to curb global warming gases that sends a strong signal to international climate negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

"EPA has a crucial role to play in getting the process started," Boxer said today. "The Clean Air Act provides EPA with powerful tools for addressing greenhouse gases, and the Supreme Court found it is their responsibility."

The finding should also help attract reluctant lawmakers to Senate negotiations to craft a more flexible, comprehensive energy and global warming bill, said Boxer, whose committee cleared a cap-and-trade global warming bill last month.

"The United States Supreme Court ordered EPA two-and-a-half years ago to answer the endangerment question," said EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy. "For EPA to have answered it any other way than in the affirmative would have been to deny, with no basis whatsoever, a fact that is recognized by overwhelming scientific consensus and that is increasingly playing out before our very eyes."

Jeff Holmstead, former EPA air chief during the George W. Bush administration and now an industry attorney, said he expects that Congress or the Obama administration will likely find a way to postpone controversial EPA permitting requirements for industrial sources until state agencies are prepared to handle a new wave of permits.

However, Holmstead said, "I think [Murkowski] is facing an uphill battle in trying to get the endangerment finding overturned," because it will be difficult to get the votes needed in the Senate. Still, he said, "I think she's trying to do the right thing, and I think that she and her allies may eventually be successful."

Click here to read the resolution.