NCC Urges Senators to Check EPA Authority Under Clean Air Act

By Jim.Robinson|June 9, 2010

The National Cotton Council (NCC) is urging Senators to vote “yes’ on adoption of S. J. Res. 26, a resolution to disapprove the regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

In a letter to Senators, who are expected to consider the resolution on June 10, NCC President/CEO Mark Lange stated that without relief from Congress, EPA regulation of greenhouse gases under the CAA would impose a severe economic impact on the U.S. cotton industry including “increased costs of production, inability to generate off-sets, increased processing costs for ginning and textile production, and market disadvantages with its international competitors in India, China, and Brazil who do not incur such regulatory burdens.”

Lange’s letter noted that Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) resolution was filed in accordance with the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which provides Congress with an opportunity to veto rules and regulations developed by federal agencies. The letter stated that the resolution, which currently has 40 co-sponsors, has drawn strong support — in January, 138 agricultural organizations sent a letter to Senator Murkowski in support of her resolution.

“While the EPA set out to regulate only mobile sources (motor vehicles), the overlapping triggers within the Clean Air Act will immediately extend the agency’s regulatory reach to stationary sources as well as giving it authority to regulate all greenhouse gas emissions,” Lange said in the letter. “President Obama, (EPA) Administrator Jackson, and Members on both sides of the aisle have said throughout the climate debate that the Clean Air Act is not the appropriate vehicle for regulating greenhouse gas emissions and that this issue should be decided by Congress. S.J. Res. 26 offers the clearest and most sensible approach to assure this occurs.”