US government memo reignites EPA carbon regulation row

The row surrounding the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) recent ruling that it could regulate carbon emissions through the Clean Air Act reignited yesterday with the release of a US government memo expressing reservations over the decision that greenhouse gases represent a threat to human health.

The White House immediately moved to down-play the document, insisting that the administration fully supported last month's "endangerment finding" from the EPA. Officials said that the bulk of the criticism included in the memo came from staff who had been appointed under the Bush administration, which opposed plans to regulate carbon emissions through the Clean Air Act.

The undated and unsigned nine-page document was produced by the White House Office of Management and Budget and was based on input from a number of agencies. It criticised the EPA's scientific analysis of the cost and benefits associated with greenhouse gases, and warned that attempts to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act would have “serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the US economy, including small businesses and small communities".

The memo was seized upon by Republicans who are engaged in a battle on Capitol Hill to water down the Obama administration's planned climate change legislation.

Brandishing the memo at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Republican senator John Barrasso told EPA boss Lisa P Jackson that it provided "smoking gun" proof that the Clean Air Act was being deliberately misused to force through carbon regulations.

"This misuse of the Clean Air Act will be a trigger for overwhelming regulation and lawsuits based on gases emitted from cars, schools, hospitals and small businesses," he said. "This will affect any number of other sources, including lawn mowers, snowmobiles and farms. This will be a disaster for the small businesses that drive America."

Jackson said that the Obama administration had made it plain that it would prefer to regulate carbon emissions through new cap-and-trade legislation. But she also insisted that the science on which the EPA based its endangerment finding was robust and that much of the analysis behind the proposed finding had been undertaken before she took office in January.

The news came as Democrats in the House of Representatives moved towards finalising a deal on the Waxman-Markey climate bill, which would establish a US-wide carbon cap-and-trade scheme.

According to Reuters' reports, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee have agreed to lower the emission reduction target included in the bill from 20 per cent to 17 per cent by 2020.

House Energy Committee chairman Henry Waxman said that talks were ongoing about how pollution permits will be distributed under the proposed cap-and-trade scheme.

Meanwhile, the scale of the challenge faced by the Obama administration as it seeks to push through carbon legislation ahead of the UN's climate change talks in Copenhagen at the end of the year was underlined by reports from the Guardian that the US oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50 per cent in the past few months as it attempts to block the legislation.

The paper reported that advertising and lobbying campaigns worth hundreds of millions of dollars are being run as many within the fossil fuel industry attempt to block or water down plans for cap and trade.

According to data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group seen by the paper, the oil and coal industry spent $76.1m (£50.3m) on ads between 1 January and 27 April compared to $28.6m spent by green groups.