Utility group to Waxman: We don't doubt climate science

An electric utility trade group told senior House Democrats Wednesday that it does not doubt global warming science, despite backing a Senate resolution to overturn EPA's finding that greenhouse gases threaten humans.

The American Public Power Association (APPA) has come under fire from Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) over its support for Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) proposal to overturn EPA's "endangerment finding."

But in a letter to the lawmakers, the group said it's backing the resolution because EPA's finding is the legal underpinning for planned rules to limit emissions from power plants and other sources.

APPA "does not dispute the science of climate change, which has shown that: 1) climatic changes are occuring; and 2) human actions are contributing to such changes," states a March 3 letter from the group to Waxman and Markey.

The group opposes EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from stationary sources under its current Clean Air Act powers, but believes Congress should enact "appropriate" climate legislation.

Murkowski said that's why she's pushing the measure too -- she fears the economic effects of planned emissions rules. Her resolution may come to the floor this month.

But Waxman, Markey and other opponents of Murkowski's plan are casting it as an attack on climate science rather than just a procedural maneuver to stymie regulations. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has called Murkowski's plan "radical" and said that Congress should not be in the business of overturning health and scientific findings by federal agencies.