E2 Round-up: Reaction to Jackson on greenhouse regs, getting the BPA out proves hard to do

Lisa Jackson sought to reassure concerned Democrats about EPA’s plans to regulate greenhouse gases yesterday. In a letter to 8 Democrats, who just days before had written the head of the EPA to express their fear the regs would be another drag on the economy, Jackson responded by saying her agency would take a cautious approach and regulate only the largest emitters first.

Ben blogged about it right after EPA released Jackson’s letter. 

The New York Times tallies up the list of people who have complained about EPA’s move so far, leading to a possible Senate vote to block the agency next month. “The senators, who earlier questioned broad cap-and-trade legislation pushed by the Obama administration, join a number of Republican lawmakers, industry groups and officials from Texas, Alabama and Virginia in challenging the proposed E.P.A. regulations of industrial sources,” the Times notes.

Senate Republicans, led by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, want to block EPA altogether. Jackson warned,however, that that action would upset a carefully constructed compromise among the administration, the state of California and auto dealers on fuel mileage standards, the Times reports.

Jackson may have indicated that EPA would take a cautious approach to regulating heat trapping gases, but advocates for action to address climate change nevertheless welcomed her response to wavering Dems. David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the letter showed that “carbon pollution can be controlled under the Clean Air Act in an effective and reasonable way,” in the Washington Post.

Some lobbyists and activists believe Jackson’s letter may give Democrats cover to vote against a move to block EPA, according to this post from Ben.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile, is focusing on regulations of a different sort. Leading Democrats on the panel are investigating whether hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique responsible for a recent boom in natural gas supplies, is an environmental threat that should be regulated by EPA.

The industry says state regulations are effective and that there is no evidence that fracturing threatens water supplies. Despite the push by the E&C committee, industry officials and lobbyists don’t seem too worried that Congress will move to restrict the use of “fracking,” in Greenwire, which is accessible at the New York Times Website. They believe the evidence is on their side.

Congress is also considering legislation that could force food manufacturers to remove the chemical Bisphenol A from containers. To satisfy nervous customers, some in the industry are trying voluntarily to remove BPA but are finding it difficult to do, in the Washington Post.

The chemical is “under scrutiny by federal regulators concerned about links to a range of health problems, including reproductive disorders and cancer,” the Post notes. It is in the epoxy linings of “nearly every metal can on supermarket shelves and leaches into foods such as soup, liquid baby formula and soda.”