Bond fears the EPA will 'starve' Midwesterns

Congress should stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases before the agency "starves" Midwesterners, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said today.

Bond said he strongly supports a resolution authored by Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) that would stop the EPA from using the Clean Air Act to rein in emissions.

"I think nobody wants to see a bureaucracy that is focused on the east coast and the left coast tell us how we live, or pay higher taxes and starve in the midwest," Bond said in a weekly radio show.

The Supreme Court ordered the EPA to determine whether greenhouse gases harm human health, and if so, issue regulations under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA officially issued that "endangerement finding" earlier this month. Both the administration and lawmakers, however, would like to see Congress act before EPA regulations become necessary.

But Bond's comments underscore the regional politics of the climate change debate that have pit environmentalists on the east and west coasts against coal-heavy states in the Midwest.

Even some otherwise liberal Democrats like Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) have been hesitant to support cap-and-trade legislation due to their energy-intensive home state industries.