The Western Business Roundtable — which is comprised of senor executives from western U.S. businesses — is expressing its concerns over the possibility that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The group has launched a nationwide grassroots campaign to help citizens express their opposition to the EPA’s plan, claiming that it “will encourage thousands of lawsuits by environmental extremists against virtually every business activity in America.”

The organization believes that the proposed EPA plan would allow Washington bureaucrats to force millions of farms, ranches, small businesses, building owners, factories and even some schools and hospitals to seek highly complicated and costly air emissions permits just to continue operations.

Roundtable CEO Jim Sims said the EPA plan gives the green light to environmental extremist groups to file lawsuits “against virtually every farm, ranch, small business and industry sector in the nation seeking to force those entities to regulate their CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions or face closure.”

On April 17 (see Daily GPI, April 20) the EPA announced that GHG emissions contribute to air pollution and may endanger public health. The announcement set the stage for expanded regulation of power plant and other emissions under the Clean Air Act and potentially a market for trading emissions credits. While hardly unexpected, the news sent a chill through industry.

Regulation of GHG emissions would be a boon to gas-fired power generation as it is seen as a bridge to widespread use of renewable energy sources as well as development of more nuclear generation, which has a long lead time.

The proposed endangerment finding is based on the study of six gases — CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride — that have been the subject of analysis by scientists around the world. “The science clearly shows that concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions, and these high levels are very likely the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate,” EPA said earlier this month.

Western Business Roundtable member companies are involved in a broad range of industries. From the energy segment, members are from coal, conventional and renewable energy production, energy services, public and investor-owned utilities, oil and natural gas, pipelines and nuclear power. Outside of energy, members are involved in agricultural products, accounting, chemicals, construction and construction materials, engineering services, environmental services, financial services, Internet technologies, manufacturing, mining, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications.

©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.