AUSTIN -- The war between Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency escalated on dual fronts Friday as two prominent industry groups announced plans to sue the agency and Texas ranchers warned of a devastating economic backlash because of the EPA's polices on greenhouse gases.

The latest developments expanded a state-federal confrontation that pits Gov. Rick Perry and state environmental regulators against ramped-up air quality enforcement by EPA's Dallas-based regional administrator, Al Armendariz.

In a petition filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the Texas Oil and Gas Association and the Texas Association of Manufacturers said they intend to sue the EPA over its disapproval of a program that allows facilities to make minor modifications if they don't increase emissions.

The EPA ruled that the "qualified facilities" program, approved by the Texas Legislature in 1995, circumvented clean-air requirements by allowing facilities to bypass a required review. Supporters said the program avoided the need for facilities to go through a wholesale permitting process just to make minor changes.

Perry sent a letter last week to President Barack Obama protesting EPA enforcement actions he said could cost Texas thousands of jobs. Environmental groups rallied behind the EPA actions and accuse Perry of political grandstanding on the clean-air issue.

Texas-based criticism of the EPA also intensified after the Senate scuttled an effort Thursday to prevent the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, which represents 15,000 cattle producers, said the EPA's greenhouse gas policies could result in burdensome regulations and fines.

"The EPA's decision to regulate greenhouse gases on their own authority will drastically increase the cost of producing safe and affordable food, putting many ranchers out of business," association President Dave Scott said.

The EPA said the Senate vote averted what would have been a "step backward" in the agency's efforts to control global-warming gases.

The industry groups filed their notice before a Monday deadline to challenge the March 31 ruling by the EPA and will outline their arguments in a lawsuit later. "We have taken this step because we believe the EPA's action is not supported by applicable law," the associations said in a news release announcing their decision.

The statement denounced the qualified facilities ruling as "an improper disapproval of an important element of the Texas air permit program." But the EPA defended its action.

"We believe our efforts to give Texans the same clean-air protection as other states is well-defined and we expect the court will rule in our favor," said Joe Hubbard, a spokesman for the Region 6 EPA office in Dallas.

The EPA is also challenging the state's "flexible permitting" policy, which allows a plant's emissions to be limited by an overall ceiling instead of multiple sources within the facility. Armendariz, saying the state policies skirt federal requirements, has blocked a Texas permit for a refinery in Corpus Christi and has threatened to take over permits for other plants.

But Perry and officials in the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality accuse the EPA of overreaching and contend that the air quality has improved significantly through state policies.

"The Texas air-permitting program has achieved dramatic results in air quality, including a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 46 percent decrease in NOx emissions," Perry's spokeswoman Allison Castle said. "The Obama administration's tactics are severely threatening Texas jobs so it's not surprising these associations have made this move."