Jan 5 (Reuters) - Many U.S. states, companies and industry groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to stop regulating greenhouse gases, saying it will harm businesses and jobs heavily dependent on oil, coal and natural gas.
President Barack Obama is pushing the EPA to regulate the emissions after Congress failed to pass a climate bill. The agency implemented its first set of regulations on big polluters on Jan. 2. [ID:nN03187196]
The lawsuits may drag on for years without final conclusions, which could slow investment in energy-dependent industries.
The EPA also faces fights in Congress, where Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate. [ID:nN22108671]
Below are the main lawsuits seeking to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
ENDANGERMENT FINDING
At least 15 states, including Texas, Virginia and Florida, as well as companies and business groups are challenging the EPA over its 2009 "endangerment finding" in which the agency labeled greenhouse gases a threat to human health.
The Chamber of Commerce is suing the EPA on the process of the finding, while others say the agency failed to conduct enough of its own research on global warming.
The industry-supported group Coalition for Responsible Regulation has also sued, and the D.C. Circuit federal appeals court has combined many of the suits into one.
About the same number of states support the EPA. Early last year 16 states, including New York and California, asked the court for permission to support the EPA.
Some analysts say the state suits essentially cancel each other out.
The EPA scored a small victory last month when a federal appeals court denied an appeal by industry groups to block the EPA from regulating, saying they did not meet the "stringent standards" necessary for the court to stop the rules. [ID:nN10125809]
It was not a final ruling, however.
CLEAN AIR ACT
Many of the same groups, including the Coalition for Responsible Regulation, have also sued the EPA over the so-called "tailoring rule", in which the agency applied the Clean Air Act to only the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. The EPA had to issue the rule because otherwise it would have had to regulate millions of greenhouse gas emitters.
The plaintiffs say the EPA does not have the right to apply the law so selectively.
TEXAS REFUSES TO ISSUE PERMITS
Texas, home to many oil refineries and fossil-fuel-fired power plants, is waging a legal war with the EPA over the agency's regulations that went into effect on Jan. 2.
The state refuses to issue permits, so the EPA has said it will do the job.
Last week, the EPA lost a round when the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the agency from issuing permits itself. Earlier, the court had blocked the state's plans to delay the EPA from acting. A final ruling on whether the EPA can proceed may come soon. (Compiled by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Dale Hudson)
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