U.S. Chamber lawsuit attacks basis for EPA emissions limits

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday filed a lawsuit that challenges EPA’s recent rejection of its petition for reconsideration of the agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases threaten humans.

The finding is the underpinning for upcoming EPA rules limiting emissions from power plants, factories and other sources that are opposed by a number of business groups.

“The U.S. Chamber, policymakers, numerous trade groups, state governments, and businesses throughout the country have collectively raised strong concerns about the significant negative impact the EPA’s endangerment finding will have on jobs and local economies,” said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber’s National Chamber Litigation Center, in a prepared statement.

The chamber filed for judicial review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

EPA in late July rejected petitions from the Chamber, states of Virginia and Texas, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, coal giant Peabody Energy Corp. and others that sought to nix the finding.

The agency cast aside claims that the “climate-gate” controversy and minor errors in a landmark U.N. report on climate change had undermined scientific conclusions that the earth is warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities.

“These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination. Excess greenhouse gases are a threat to our health and welfare,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said at the time.