Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the chief architect of the Senate’s climate change legislation, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Monday was sending a “clear signal to Congress” when it issued an endangerment finding on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“The message to Congress is crystal clear: Get moving,” Kerry said. If Congress doesn’t enact climate change legislation, the EPA under the Supreme Court ruling in 2007 is “more than justified” in moving forward to promulgate rules regulating GHG emissions, he said.

EPA’s endangerment finding formally declared that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHG emissions pose dangers to the public’s health and welfare, which lays the groundwork for the agency to begin formulating more stringent rules (see Daily GPI, Dec. 8).

“Imposed regulations by definition will not include the job protections and investment incentives we are proposing in the Senate today,” said Kerry. “Given the potential for agency regulation, those who now aim to grind the legislative process to a halt would later come running to Congress to secure the kinds of incentives we can pass today. Industry needs the certainty that comes with Congressional action on this vital issue.”

Kerry, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, is leading a Congressional delegation to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.

EPA’s findings raise the stakes on Capitol Hill, but the Senate is not expected to move forward on legislation before next spring. The House passed a climate and energy package in June.

The federal action is a prerequisite to several steps the EPA would have to make to promulgate GHG rules. However, the final finding allows EPA and the Department of Transportation to complete a joint rulemaking on vehicle mileage and emissions standards. EPA next spring also plans to enact rules to require emissions controls on new or upgraded stationary sources, such as power plants, that emit more than 25,000 tons of CO2 a year.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who is working with Kerry and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on a compromise Senate bill, said “it is imperative that Congress take action to address climate change so that we avoid the inevitable series of complicated, top-down regulations EPA will draft if we fail to act first.”

The Obama administration wants a legislative plan, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Monday said the any rules promulgated by EPA would “complement” any legislation.

“I believe it is not either/or,” Jackson said of rules versus legislation. “I don’t want anyone to leave here thinking that because we continue our work that I don’t stand firm in my belief that we need legislation..That being said, I also believe quite firmly that there are things that the Clean Air Act allows us to do…that we have already done that pave the way for this country to move smartly, sensibly, with common sense, toward a clean energy future.”

EPA’s action was a rebuke to some GOP members, who in recent days have called for the Obama administration to delay any action regarding climate change because of e-mails hacked from a UK research institute that skeptics claim undercut evidence of human-induced global warming (see Daily GPI, Nov. 30).

The “EPA action mimics the e-mails in one respect: It demonstrates that public relations priorities rather than straightforward science are driving U.S. policy-making on global warming,” said Rep. Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, “the idea that the EPA is going to proceed on their effort to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide going into the air, in the face of all of these e-mails now been disclosed about climate change, causes me to wonder just what planet are they living on.”

Jackson disagreed. “There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based,” she said during the conference call. She stressed that congressional action is the administration’s first choice.

Other critics, including Charlie Drevna, CEO of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, called the EPA action “another example of federal policymakers failing to consider the long-term consequences of a regulatory action for consumers and the economy as a whole.”

But the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents the power industry, said the finding was the first shot across the bow and “another reminder that greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act is a certainty unless Congress crosses the finish line first.”

“The president has expressed his strong preference for federal legislation, as has EPA Administrator Jackson, and we agree,” said EEI spokesman Dan Riedinger. “Workable climate legislation is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while protecting consumers.”

Kevin Book, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners, said taking action to reduce GHG emissions “is the price of admission…We can’t credibly negotiate with other countries unless we do something…The final endangerment finding means that we will have committed irrevocably to action. And the first and most likely response is that Congress will pass a new law. This is a checkmate for Congress.”

FBR Capital Markets analysts Benjamin Salisbury and Rehan Rashid said the next two weeks will produce “headline volatility” on climate change, but they are advising investors to “focus on the facts,” In a note to clients they said:

“We believe that this [EPA’s action] will drive Congress to enact cap-and-trade legislation in 2010,” wrote the FBR Capital analysts. “If Congress fails, the EPA will continue with regulation under the Clean Air Act.”

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.