Senate opts not to challenge EPA climate role

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator's attempt to impose a one-year delay on possible Environmental Protection Agency rules controlling smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions sputtered in the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Democratic and Republican leaders headed off a fight -- and a potentially close tally -- when they agreed to not allow a vote by the full Senate on Senator Lisa Murkowski's amendment to a bill funding the EPA in fiscal year 2010, which begins October 1.

But a spokesman for Murkowski said the senator would look for other upcoming bills to try her amendment.

Meanwhile, a congressional aide who follows climate change legislation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Senate Democrats are expected to introduce on September 30 a wide-ranging bill to control greenhouse gas emissions.

In June, the House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a climate control bill that aims for a 17 percent cut in industrial emissions of carbon by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

It was not yet clear whether there will be enough support in the Senate to pass such a bill this year.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Murkowski said she was concerned that EPA regulation of carbon emissions from stationary sources such as factories, oil refineries and coal-fired power plants would be "potentially devastating to our economy."

The EPA is weighing rules that would require reduced carbon emissions, which are blamed for climate change problems, at such stationary sources. Instead of using high-polluting coal or oil, for example, companies increasingly would have to use alternative fuels that could be costlier, at least initially.

Senate Democrats were worried that any move to delay possible EPA regulations would be a serious blow to Obama administration attempts to begin bringing down carbon dioxide emissions that are blamed for climate change. They fear it also could undercut the U.S. negotiating position in international climate change talks.

EPA EXPRESSES CONCERN

Murkowski has said her amendment would not stop the EPA from going ahead with its rules to reduce automobile and truck emissions.

But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a letter on Wednesday to Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, said the Murkowski measure, if enacted, would shut down all regulation of carbon emissions, including tougher automobile and light truck standards issued last week.

Lobbyists for U.S. and foreign car companies, who want a national standard for tailpipe emissions instead of a patchwork of state rules, also expressed concerns that Murkowski's measure would be disruptive.

Without congressional intervention, the EPA could start putting forth rules on stationary sources of carbon emissions early next year. The Obama administration is hoping Congress sends the president a comprehensive climate bill before then so the EPA does not have to take the lead with its more narrow approach.

Environmentalists expressed relief that the Murkowski measure was set aside.

"The good news is that a major effort failed to pull the rug out from under the Clean Air Act, one of the nation's most successful environmental laws," said Emily Figdor of the Environment America Federal Global Warming Program.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and John Crawley, editing by Will Dunham)