First Petition to Stay Filed With EPA on Endangerment Finding

Could stop new global warming regulations for 3 months

ATLANTA and WASHINGTON, March 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Filing the first Petition to Stay with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the multi-party legal challenge against the EPA's Endangerment Finding on carbon dioxide emissions, Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) cites "significant legal precedent for the EPA to halt its current regulatory steamroller."

All legal documents and filings, as well as scientific background and reports, are available at www.epalawsuit.org.  The complete list of plaintiff-petitioners follows this release.  

A stay on the EPA's Endangerment Finding would halt the forward progress of the EPA's acknowledged implementation of greenhouse gas standards for light-duty vehicles and pending issuance of permits and other devastating regulatory measures for so-called "stationary sources."

"Under similar circumstances in the past, stays have been granted when the proposed EPA rules were impractical, scientifically questionable, and even dangerous to implement," said Shannon Goessling (pronounced, GUESS-ling), SLF executive director and chief legal counsel.  "The barrage of almost-daily scientific information that decimates the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, which underpin the EPA's Endangerment Finding, absolutely call into question the basis for the regulatory regime."

Under Section 307 of the Clean Air Act, the EPA has stayed similar proceedings involving petroleum refineries; air emission standards for tanks, surface impoundments and containers; boilers and industrial furnaces; and, halogenated solvent cleaning, among others.  Stays were granted based on holdings ranging from changing scientific evidence and potential safety hazards resulting from proposed regulations to mistaken risk assumptions and impractical enforcement of the rules.

Key excerpts from the Petition to Stay filed by SLF:

"In this instance, the very foundation for the [Endangerment] Finding has been jeopardized by recently developed [scientific] evidence."

Under federal governing guidelines, "the EPA is required to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information that it disseminates ... [and] accuracy, transparency and reproducibility are key components of ensuring the quality of information under the guidelines" (citations in Petition to Stay).

LIST OF PLAINTIFF-PETITIONERS

U.S. Rep. John Linder (GA)

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA)

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (IL)

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (GA)

U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (GA)

U.S. Rep. Tom Price (GA)

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (GA)

U.S. Rep. Steve King (IA)

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (GA)

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (GA)

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN)

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (TX)

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (TX)

U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (AZ)

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN)

Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc.

Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Inc.

Georgia Agribusiness Council, Inc.

The Langdale Company

Langboard, Inc. – MDF

Langboard, Inc. – OSB

Langdale Chevrolet – Pontiac, Inc.

Langdale Farms, LLC

Langdale Ford Company

Langdale Forest Products Co.

Langdale Fuel Co.

Collins Industries, Inc.

Collins Trucking Company, Inc.

Kennesaw Transportation, Inc.

J&M Tank Lines, Inc.

Southeast Trailer Mart, Inc.

SOURCE Southeastern Legal Foundation