Senior Democrats floating bill to block EPA on plans for greenhouse gas rules

House committee chairmen from Minnesota and Missouri are floating legislation to block planned EPA greenhouse gas rules.

The effort underscores unease among senior Democrats from conservative-leaning states about Obama administration emissions policy.

Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) — who head the Agriculture and Armed Services committees, respectively — introduced a plan Tuesday that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from placing limits on heat-trapping emissions from power plants, factories and other sources.

“I have no confidence that the EPA can regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act without doing serious damage to our economy,” Peterson said in a prepared statement. “Americans know we’re way too dependent on foreign oil and fossil fuels in this country — and I’ve worked hard to develop practical solutions to that problem — but Congress should be making these types of decisions, not unelected bureaucrats at the EPA.”

Peterson has been a thorn in the side of Democratic leaders on climate change. He won major concessions for agriculture in the big climate change and energy bill the House approved in June, but recently said he’d vote against the bill if it comes back before the House.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) is also backing a largely Republican effort to prevent EPA regulations.

The White House says it wants Congress to approve legislation that would create a new system to regulate greenhouse gases. But EPA will move ahead under its current Clean Air Act powers if Congress does not act, administration officials say.

The new Peterson-Skelton plan, co-sponsored by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), would also block EPA from considering certain changes in land use when measuring greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol.

Final EPA rules expected as soon as today would weigh something called “international indirect land use changes” when assessing the carbon footprint of renewable fuels under a 2007 energy law.

The phrase refers to deforestation to create farmland in other countries that might result from increased use of corn and soybeans in the U.S. to make biofuels. Peterson and other ethanol industry backers say the measurements are unfair and based on speculative science.