A SECRETIVE group linked to a leading European chemical company has joined the campaign to defeat Barack Obama's green agenda, taking the fight beyond the traditional players — the big oil and coal firms.
The previously unknown Coalition for Responsible Regulation Inc (CRR) is at the forefront of a strategy to strip the Obama administration of its powers to regulate greenhouse gas emissions should Congress fail to act on climate change.
The group, which refuses to disclose its complete membership and which does not have a website, has joined more than a dozen states and a host of industry groups in 17 legal challenges to the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The connection to the chemical firm Solvay suggests opposition to action on global warming, once spearheaded by big oil, is spreading to other industries that will also be affected by proposals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases. Several of the petitioners against the EPA are household names in the US, such Peabody Energy Corp, America's biggest coal mining company, and the Chamber of Commerce, which has led opposition to Obama's climate agenda. They also include prominent rightwing thinktanks.
But some of those launching legal challenges against the EPA have appeared as if from nowhere — such as the CRR. Court documents filed in Texas identify Richard Hogan, chief executive of Solvay's wholly owned US subsidiary, as one of three directors of the CRR, the lead petitioner on the legal challenge to the EPA's authority to act on greenhouse gas emissions.
The filings with the Texas authorities reveal the coalition was founded on Nov 10 year — a day after the EPA announced its scientists had determined that greenhouse gases were a public danger. The group filed its challenge to the EPA on Dec 23.
Eric Groten, a lawyer for the coalition, said it plans to file at least three more legal challenges against the EPA, which could tie up the agency in paperwork.
At least 15 state legislatures are now considering motions casting doubt on climate science or seeking to overturn the EPA's authority to regulate emissions. Republicans in Congress have filed separate resolutions to set aside the EPA's finding about the dangers of greenhouse gases, and the Senate may reportedly seek to strip the EPA of powers in a climate bill expected to be rolled out next week.
Court documents identify the CRR as a non-profit membership corporation “for the purpose of promoting social welfare, particularly to ensure that the clean air act is properly applied to greenhouse gases.”
— The Guardian, London