Download The Honorable Marsha Blackburn

September 11, 2008
The Honorable Marsha Blackburn
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Blackburn:
The undersigned organizations, representing a broad array of organizations and associations in
all parts of the United States, strongly support H.R. 6666, which would establish that certain
greenhouse gases (GHG) not be subject to Clean Air Act regulation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent publication of an Advance Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on regulating Greenhouse Gases illustrates how ill-suited the Clean
Air Act is in its current form to regulate GHGs. The ANPR itself acknowledges that “the [Clean Air
Act] was not specifically designed to regulate GHGs.” Regulation would lead to what Chairman
Dingell described as the “glorious mess.”
EPA issued the ANPR in response to Massachusetts v. EPA, a Supreme Court decision that
dealt with the issue of the impact of motor vehicles on climate change. Were the provisions of the
ANPR to be implemented, they would have the unintended consequence of automatically triggering
costly and burdensome regulation of thousands of individual manufacturing facilities, hospitals, farms,
schools, office buildings, and even large houses. The ANPR also discusses regulation of emissions
from individual motorcycles and lawnmowers. The result would be that businesses and consumers
alike would experience significantly higher costs and onerous regulation; business would be put at a
global competitive disadvantage; and the public would not see any real improvement in atmospheric
GHG levels.
Whatever the appropriate response to climate change, it is clear that regulation under the
current framework of the Clean Air Act is not the answer. We commend you for introducing H.R.
6666, and we look forward to working with you on this important issue.
Sincerely,
American Farm Bureau Federation
American Forest & Paper Association
American Gas Association
American Petroleum Institute
Agricultural Retailers Association
Corn Refiners Association
Florida Chamber
National Automobile Dealers Association
National Oilseed Processors Association
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
U.S. Chamber of Commerce