By Robert Pore

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., both expressed concern Monday over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declaring greenhouse gas emissions as dangerous pollutants. According to Smith, the EPA announcement to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions is a federal mandate that could force agricultural producers to make costly changes to reduce emissions – even if Congress does not pass cap-and-trade legislation. Smith said the EPA announcement comes as an international climate summit begins meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. “The announcement was a tremendous disappointment for everyone concerned for the future of production agriculture,” Smith said. “Agriculture is an energy-intensive industry, and new federal mandates could stifle any growth we are experiencing. This is a dangerous shift in policy which could result in a direct compliance tax on ag producers at a time when we can least afford it.” Smith is a cosponsor of H.R. 391, legislation which would exempt certain gases, including methane, from EPA regulations under the Clean Air Act. In April, Smith sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) requesting a hearing on environmental burdens on rural American. “The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency today to announce an endangerment finding on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could carry severe consequences for America’s farmers and ranchers. Johanns said the announcement moves the EPA one step closer to regulating greenhouse gases. “This decision from EPA is bad for agriculture, bad for business and bad for anyone who flips on a light switch,” Johanns said. “Congress needs to act to stop EPA from imposing devastating regulations on Americans. We should review all available legislative options to address this action by the EPA. Johanns said climate change legislation before the Senate, the Obama-Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill, does nothing to stop this EPA action. “So if the Senate bill were to pass, Americans would get a double dose of regulation, taxation, and government manipulation,” he said. “This Administration seems to think there is no limit to the government’s reach into the everyday lives of Americans.” According to the EPA, greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people and that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat. According to EPA, GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans. According to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, EPA’s final findings respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that GHGs fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. She said that the findings do not in and of themselves impose any emission reduction requirements but rather allow EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation. According to EPA, on-road vehicles contribute more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, a subset of on-road vehicles, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles. EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of scrutiny and intense analysis for decades by scientists in the United States and around the world. According to EPA, scientific consensus shows that as a result of human activities, GHG concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high levels and data shows that the Earth has been warming over the past 100 years, with the steepest increase in warming in recent decades. Jackson said the evidence of human-induced climate change goes beyond observed increases in average surface temperatures; it includes melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans due to excess carbon dioxide, changing precipitation patterns, and changing patterns of ecosystems and wildlife. While the Obama administration supports a legislative solution to the problem of climate change, Jackson said climate change is threatening public health and welfare and it’s critical that EPA fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.