Key Republican: Delay EPA climate action until after courts rule

Congress should pass legislation to delay the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions until courts resolve a number of issues, a key Republican said Tuesday. 

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who will take over the House panel with oversight over the Environmental Protection Agency next year, said lawmakers should reach a “bipartisan compromise” to pass legislation that prevents the EPA from taking action until a number of lawsuits are revolved in the courts. 

They should take this action, he wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, if lawmakers can’t agree to pass a bill permanently blocking the agency’s authority.

“The best solution is for Congress to overturn the EPA's proposed greenhouse gas regulations outright. If Democrats refuse to join Republicans in doing so, then they should at least join a sensible bipartisan compromise to mandate that the EPA delay its regulations until the courts complete their examination of the agency's endangerment finding and proposed rules,” wrote Upton, who co-authored the op-ed with Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips. Americans for Prosperity is planning a push next year to convince Republicans to work to block a number of Obama administration regulations.

A number of industry and business groups as well as states like Texas have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block a finding by the EPA that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. The finding compels the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said earlier this month that it would not halt EPA climate rules while the lawsuits are considered by the courts.

The op-ed directly challenges a proposal by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) to delay EPA’s climate authority by two years. Democrats punted on bringing his bill up for a vote in the lame-duck session after Republicans pulled their support for the measure.  

Upton, the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce panel, described a two-year delay on EPA's authority as "arbitrary."

“For the last year or so, some in Congress have considered mandating that the EPA delay its greenhouse-gas regulations by two years,” the op-ed says. “But that delay is arbitrary — it was selected because a handful of Democrats needed political cover. There is no way to know whether two years will be sufficient time for the courts to complete their work.”

The op-ed gives a sense of what’s to come in the House next year under Republican control. Upton and a number of other lawmakers have said they will set their sights on EPA’s climate rules, among other things, in an effort to block what they see as the Obama administration’s efforts to impose far-reaching regulations that will hurt the economy.