Environmental Protection Agency officials would not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases under legislation being filed by West-Central Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton and Southeast Missouri Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson.

Skelton says their bill would stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, keep the EPA from calculating foreign deforestation in setting ethanol and bio-diesel policies and change the definition of bio-mass to benefit US farmers and the renewable fuels industry.

The two say a Massachusetts case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that the EPA had the power to regulate greenhouse gases. The legislation would strip the EPA of that power.

Skelton says regulations proposed by the EPA would drastically raise utility rates in Missouri and dramatically harm Missouri farmers.

“The EPA is controlled by bureaucrats who are not elected and responsible only to the head of the EPA who is from New Jersey,” Skelton said during a Jefferson City news conference. “I doubt that they understand mid-America, the Midwest, agriculture and what our farmers need to continue to do a good job for our country.”

Congresswoman Emerson says the EPA is trying to enforce what it can’t get through Congress.

“It is their goal to, in effect, impose these kinds of regulations that will hurt every single business in Missouri,” Emerson said. “It will decimate our agricultural industry. It will increase the cost for our citizens of their electricity; every time they flip on a light switch.”

The proposed legislation would amend the Clean Air Act and the 2007 Energy Bill.

AUDIO: Congressman Skelton and Congresswoman Emerson news conference on EPA [6 min]