House memos preview Wednesday showdown on EPA climate rules

Dueling memos circulating among House Energy and Commerce Committee members underscore battle lines over climate change that will be on display at a committee hearing Wednesday.

GOP staff prepared one background memo, obtained by E2, ahead of the hearing on Committee Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) bill to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, refineries, factories and other facilities.

The memo states that issues to be examined at the hearing include “regulatory burdens” associated with implementing EPA’s rules, including burdens on states and local regulators; the effects of the rules on new construction and facility expansions; and the effects of the rules on energy costs, energy-intensive industries and other businesses and on consumers.

But Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is circulating a separate memo among Democrats that attacks Upton’s draft bill to nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.

The memo says the legislation would have a suite of far-reaching effects, such as threatening the national renewable fuels standard and creating legal uncertainty about the status of EPA’s existing motor vehicle standards.

The measure would also, according to the memo from Waxman and Energy and Power subcommittee ranking member Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), “call into question EPA’s authority to implement voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” and “create new litigation opportunities for opponents of regulation of conventional pollutants."

The Democratic memo more broadly criticizes Upton's bill, noting it upends EPA’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a threat to humans. The finding is the legal foundation for climate change regulations.

“Legislatively repealing the scientific determination directly conflicts with the consensus of climate scientists and the world's most authoritative scientific organizations,” the memo notes.

Wednesday’s hearing in the Energy and Power subcommittee will include testimony from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in what will be her first public clash with the new House GOP majority.

Other witnesses include Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is working with Upton on efforts to stymie EPA climate regulations, as well as several industry officials, a public health advocate and others.