Gov. Dave Freudenthal stepped into the congressional debate over climate change legislation this week, penning a letter to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Freudenthal argued against a low carbon fuel standard, saying it places an undue burden on "small business refiners" to pay the full cost of carbon emissions generated by the fuels they produce.

He also argued in favor of providing smaller refiners access to some carbon credits so they wouldn't have to compete for 100 percent of the credits they need in an open-auction market.

"The draft climate bill proposes to make the few small business refiners in my state responsible for all consumer carbon emissions for fuel they supply," Freudenthal wrote. "It appears that each year, cap and trade would require these small refiners to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to cover the carbon use of several million consumers."

The House Energy committee is working on a bill aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing more renewable electricity generation, one of President Barack Obama's top priorities. Key to the effort is a "cap and trade" proposal that would set a ceiling and put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. Companies could either purchase or receive their allowance for free, and then buy or sell portions of their allotment to meet emissions limits.

As written, the bill provides no guarantee of a cost pass-through to consumers of gasoline and other fuels that emit carbon, and that threatens the viability of small oil refineries, Freudenthal said.

"If enacted as written, the new energy policy for much of the interior West would be to load all consumer, commerce, agriculture, industry and military carbon emissions from transportation fuel on the backs of a few small processors of crude oil," Freudenthal wrote.

The governor noted there are just five operating refineries in Wyoming, all of which are owned by "small business refiners." The refineries are vital to the state's economy because they supply most all of the transportation fuel consumed in the state privately and in mining, agriculture, railroads, Air Force bases and the National Guard.

Bob Neufeld, vice president of environment and governmental relations for Wyoming Refining Co., said he and other Wyoming refiners approached Freudenthal and asked him to weigh in on the legislation.

"A number of the refiners spoke to the governor and said, 'Look. We have a problem with two parts of the bill: allocation of carbon credits and the low carbon fuels standard,'" Neufeld said. "If just one of the five refineries in Wyoming were to close, it would be a significant impact to Wyoming."

So why did the refiners approach Wyoming's Democratic governor and not Wyoming's Republican congressional delegation? Neufeld said it's because the bill is being worked up in the House right now, so it's unnecessary to involve Wyoming's two senators.

Neufeld noted that Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., doesn't serve on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, so she isn't directly involved in committee mark-ups of the bill. Separate from the governor's urging, however, Lummis had already signed onto a letter in support of the same recommendations pushed for by Wyoming's refiners.

Neufeld explained that he and other refiners are simply working with all Wyoming leaders who might help the interest of small refiners.

"We think we can use all of the help we can get, and we appreciate both of their (Lummis and Freudenthal) help very much," Neufeld said.

"The climate change bill being proposed here in Congress is going to have a wide range of impacts on folks in Wyoming," said Lummis spokesman Ryan Taylor. "We can have a multi-pronged attack to make sure consumers are being protected, as well as industry in Wyoming. Someone needs to be watching out for them, and that's what Rep. Lummis is doing."

Freudenthal also urged Waxman to reconsider measures in the legislation punitive to consumers of fuel derived from Canadian tar sands. As oil production in the intermountain region declined over the past several decades, Canadian sources of oil flowed into the region to maintain refining capacity here.

"The proposed national transportation fuel greenhouse gas emissions baseline would penalize Wyoming refineries for processing tar sands oil, even though no other comparable quantity of oil is available in the area," Freudenthal wrote.

Freudenthal said the region's reliance on Canadian sources of oil is another reason to strike the low carbon fuels standard measure in the bill.

Contact energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or {M7dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/DustinBleizeffer/blog.