Air quality officials to Senate: Don’t thwart us on climate

States’ rights are taking center stage as the Senate prepares to tackle climate change.

State and local air pollution regulators sent a letter Thursday to the architects of the upcoming Senate climate bill that warns against curtailing state programs to cut greenhouse gases.

"While any federal program should be sufficiently stringent to substantially reduce GHG emissions, federal legislation should not preempt state or local governments from taking more stringent actions, especially in light of the past leadership and innovation demonstrated by state and local officials in reducing GHG emissions," states the letter from the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

The letter was sent to Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who plan to unveil their long-awaited climate change and energy bill later this month.

"It is therefore critical that future global warming legislation preserve the rights of states and localities to adopt, among other things, energy efficiency requirements, renewable portfolio standards, transportation planning measures, vehicle GHG emission standards, and regional or state-wide emission caps on industrial and other major GHG sources," the letter adds.

The letter follows a similar plea from Democratic attorneys general from seven states earlier this week.

But the state officials’ push to preserve their power is running up against the wishes of industry groups that Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman are aggressively courting as they seek support for controversial emissions limits.

Groups including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce say any new federal emissions mandate should limit state powers and block EPA from regulating under its existing Clean Air Act authority.