The attorney general of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, has filed a petition to block the Envirnomental Protection Agency from declaring greenhouse gases to be a threat to public health: Virginia Files Challenge to E.P.A. Greenhouse Gas Regulation.

Mr. Cuccinelli, seeking to block the decision, also filed a petition with a federal appeals court for a review of the December E.P.A. finding, in which the agency asserted that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases emitted from automobiles, power plants and factories “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.”

In part, the move was aimed at encouraging Congress to enact legislation to manage the distribution of these gases into the atmosphere — essentially telling lawmakers, as John Broder reported late last year, that if they do not act to control greenhouse gas pollution, the E.P.A. would “use its rule-making power to do so.”

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Cuccinelli called the E.P.A.’s finding “an incredibly far-reaching decision” arising from what he called uncertain data and a “flawed process.”

“The potential impact of the finding on Virginia agriculture, the energy industry, manufacturing jobs, and in truth the cost of living for every single Virginian,” Mr. Cuccinelli said, “would create a staggering burden.”

Mr. Cuccinelli also added that the E.P.A. should consider new information, including recently publicized e-mail messages from a British climate research institute. Mr. Cuccinelli said the e-mail messages showed scientists using faulty data to support the notion of manmade global warming.

This, of course, was the ultimate aim of whoever planned the Climategate exploit — to position it as a wedge issue to advance their agenda of confusion, and ultimately use it as a weapon to thwart climate change legislation.