The governors have officially joined the fight against EPA’s move to regulate carbon dioxide.

Governors from 18 states – only one a Democrat – wrote to congressional leaders that EPA’s effort would “increase the cost of electricity and gasoline prices, manufactured products, and ultimately harm the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.”

“We strongly urge Congress to stop harmful EPA regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions that could damage those vital interests,” the letter states, in Dow Jones.

Read more...

A mostly Republican group of 20 state and territorial governors is urging Congress to block EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

A letter Wednesday from the governors – 18 Republicans and two Democrats – to House and Senate leaders alleges that planned EPA rules to limit heat-trapping emissions would harm their state economies.

“We feel compelled to guard against a regulatory approach that would increase the cost of electricity and gasoline prices, manufactured products, and ultimately harm the competitiveness of the U.S. economy,” states the letter to Democratic and GOP leadership.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has provided Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) a wish list of items for climate change legislation that includes a lengthy delay before greenhouse gas limits are imposed on industrial facilities.

Levin is a pivotal voice on climate policy. His state includes Detroit automakers and other manufacturing interests that fear the costs of climate legislation and its effects on their competitiveness.

In a March 5 letter to Kerry – who is playing a leading role in Senate climate negotiations –  Levin calls for a delay of at least 10 years before industrial plants face regulations. Levin argues that a further delay should be provided “if important trade provisions to assure a level playing field are not included and fully implemented.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill today to provide homeowners and businesses with low-interest loans to make energy efficiency improvements to cut their energy use.

The measure would grant $4.9 billion in loan authority to the Rural Utilities Services, which finances rural electric utilities. The RUS loans to the electric co-ops would be zero percent interest, and given on the condition that the co-ops would in turn make low-interest loans to their customers for things like installing insulation, replacing old heating and cooling systems and repairing leaky roofs.

The co-op loans could not exceed interest rates of greater than 3 percent.

“This bill provides for energy conservation, job creation and cost-effective upgrades that will improve consumers’ quality of life,” House Majority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said in a statement.

As expected, the United Nations today announced that an outside review of the embattled UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be conducted by a scientific body called the InterAcademy Council.

The Council, based in the Netherlands, is an umbrella group for national science academies in various nations, including the U.S.

Climate skeptics – including several Capitol Hill lawmakers – have pounced on errors in the IPCC’s massive 2007 report on global warming. But the IPCC defended its work even as it announced the new review.

The League of Conservation Voters launched an effort Wednesday to play up oil industry contributions to the conservative lawmaker.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has begun reviewing a final EPA-Transportation Department joint rule that sets tougher vehicle mileage targets and creates first-time tailpipe standards for greenhouse gases.

The plan covers model years 2012-2016, setting a mileage standard that ultimately reaches 35.5 miles per gallon and a carbon dioxide emissions standard that reaches 250 grams per mile fleet-wide.

OMB received the final rule from the agencies Monday, according to its website, and the agencies hope to issue the measure at the end of this month or the beginning of April.

The AARP, the powerful senior’s lobby, likes Cantwell-Collins approach to climate change.

The group sent a letter to Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday calling their so-called cap-and-dividend approach to climate legislation a “thoughtful, bipartisan approach” that reduces carbon dioxide emissions but also protects consumers.

AARP had expressed concern that House-passed climate legislation, which uses an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to cut emissions, didn’t provide enough protections to consumers. Ben wrote a piece explaining the Cantwell-Collins approach.

The White House is courting Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) as it pushes for broad climate change and energy legislation, but Lugar signaled this week that he’s just not that into the carbon capping part, at least for now.

Lugar on Tuesday circulated an outline of what he called “practical” legislation that contains steps to curb oil use and boost alternative energy that steers clear of mandatory greenhouse gas limits.

“Currently, rhetoric and legislation are focused primarily at climate change while most Americans are more interested in oil reductions and economic impacts,” he said in a prepared statement. “We should concentrate this year on those policies that will save energy and money. Such a bill can bring large and measurable carbon reductions by reducing energy usage and foreign oil dependency.”

Lugar’s “policy outline” includes: A national building “performance standard” and incentives (such as low-interest loans) for home and building retrofits; tougher appliance standards; a nationwide “clean energy standard” that would mandate use of low-carbon electricity sources including renewables, nuclear and coal with carbon capture and storage; enhanced offshore oil-and-gas drilling; fully implementing the existing national biofuels mandate, and several other measures.