Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson says she doesn't agree with those who who question the underlying science linking humans to global warming. EPA rejects challenge to climate rules

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming.

In a sternly written opinion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she didn’t agree with requests from the GOP attorneys general from Texas and Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups that questioned the underlying science linking humans to global warming and also warned of the potential economic burdens from new climate rules.


EPA last December concluded that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health and welfare, a decision clearing the way this spring for climate-based regulations for new cars and trucks. Next year, the agency is expected to write standards for power plants and other major industrial sources of heat-trapping gases.

In their petitions, EPA’s opponents had highlighted stolen e-mails from prominent climate scientists that they allege showed collusion to hide contrary information debunking global warming. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott had also warned that the EPA rules would lead to “unprecedented bureaucratic licensing and regulatory burdens on farmers, ranchers, small businesses, hospitals and even schools.”

But Jackson said the groups’ arguments lack merit.

“These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination,” Jackson wrote.

Regarding the e-mails, Jackson said an agency review of the materials show “a candid discussion of scientists working through issues that arise in compiling and presenting large complex data sets.” She said four independent reviews have reached similar conclusions.

EPA’s rules have added weight for the Obama administration now that the Senate has punted for the year on plans to pass a cap-and-trade bill to address climate change.

Opponents are suing to overturn EPA’s “endangerment finding” in federal appeals court, but that case sits on hold pending Jackson’s decision to address the preliminary requests for the agency to reconsider its decision. Oral arguments in the lawsuit are unlikely until next spring, with a final decision expected by the summer, according to lawyers tracking the case.

EPA’s critics are also trying to stop the agency on Capitol Hill. A House Appropriations subcommittee last week rejected an amendment to EPA’s annual spending bill to put a two-year hold on EPA’s climate rules for power plants. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) earlier this week filed a similar proposal to the small-business bill now on the floor, though it’s unlikely she’ll win a vote because of unrelated hurdles for the bill.

“You attack it at all fronts,” Murkowski told POLITICO on Thursday. “You go the judicial route. You go the legislative route. I think this is important to make sure we are looking at all avenues.”

President Barack Obama would most likely veto any bill that reached his desk to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, a White House official said last week.