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Human Events...
EPA’s Cap and Trade
Upheld, Thanks to Obama and Harry Reid
by Emily Miller
04/07/2011
President Obama will veto the bill passed by the Republican House on
Thursday, which prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from
regulating greenhouse emissions. Also on Wednesday, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) successfully maneuvered to prevent
passage of the same legislation, sponsored by Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R.-Ky.).
Congressional Republicans are trying to stop the Obama administration’s
EPA from continuing to implement new regulations that tax businesses
and raise gas prices in order to pursue its climate change
agenda. The EPA is using the Clean Air Act (CAA) as a vehicle for
its new cap-and-trade (or “cap-and-tax”) regulations.
EPA regulations of carbon dioxide emissions that come from coal, oil,
and natural gas raise the energy cost to consumers, which trickles down
to increase the cost of everything from gasoline to groceries.
The White House released a veto threat of the House bill, Energy Tax
Prevention Act (HR 910), two days before it was voted on the floor.
“The administration strongly opposes House passage of HR 910, which
would halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s common-sense steps
under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to protect Americans from harmful air
pollution. HR 910 would also increase the nation’s dependence on
oil and other fossil fuels as well as contradict the scientific
consensus on climate change,” read the policy statement.
Despite Obama’s veto threat, the Energy Tax Prevention Act passed the
House by a vote of 255 to 172, with 19 Democrats voting for it.
The bill would block the EPA from using the CAA to create new
regulations that curb greenhouse gases and impose a backdoor energy tax.
“I think it is a travesty that this government is deliberately imposing
policies that will harm job creators and working families,” said Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R.-Mich.), who co-sponsored
the bill with Rep. Ed Whitfield (R.-Ky.)
“And for what?” asked Upton. “EPA Administrator [Lisa] Jackson
herself admits U.S. regulation of greenhouse gases will not affect
global climate conditions.”
As Democrats were unable to pass cap and trade in the previous
Congress, this bill prohibits the Obama administration from regulating
what it could not legislate.
“We all know this administration wanted a cap-and-trade system to
regulate
greenhouse gases. But Congress said no. So beginning in
early 2009, EPA began putting together a house of cards to regulate
emissions of carbon dioxide,” said Upton during debate.
In the Senate, McConnell’s amendment failed to meet the 60-vote
threshold for passage, getting 50 votes. The McConnell/Inhofe
amendment is the same legislation as the House’s Energy Tax Prevention
Act.
McConnell and Sen. James Inhofe (R.-Okla.), the ranking Republican on
the Environment and Public Works Committee, offered the amendment on
March 15 to a small-business reauthorization bill. When many
Democrats expressed their support for the McConnell’s amendment, Reid
stopped all votes on the bill.
For the past three weeks, Reid has worked feverishly behind the scenes
to get his Democrat caucus to vote against it. When Reid failed
to find enough Democrats to vote against stopping the EPA’s
cap-and-trade policies, he added three similar amendments to the bill
so that the Democrats had a false political pretense.
“Democrats themselves recognize the dangers of these EPA
regulations. Yet instead of just voting for the one amendment
that solves the problem, they’re hiding behind sham amendments designed
to give them political cover,” said McConnell on the floor.
None of the four EPA amendments got enough votes to pass, which was
Reid’s plan.
Looking on the bright side, McConnell noted that the combined four
votes showed there is bipartisan support to stop the EPA from
implementing the new regulations.
“Altogether, more than 60 senators voted in favor of four amendments
that, to one degree or another, would restrain the EPA’s power to
regulate carbon emissions from farmers, manufacturers, and power
plants,” said McConnell in a statement after the votes. “We in
the Senate will continue to fight for legislation that will give the
certainty that no unelected bureaucrat at the EPA is going to make
efforts to create jobs even more difficult than the administration
already has.”
The cap-and-trade policies have been pushed by congressional Democrats
and President Obama for almost two years. The House Democrats
passed cap and trade by seven votes in June 2009, but the bill died in
the Senate.
As the Republicans were about to take control of the House this past
December, the Obama Administration instituted new EPA regulations to
put cap-and-trade policies into effect. Obama’s EPA used the CAA
as a vehicle for the new regulations, which impose a tax in the form of
carbon emissions to businesses to regulate their greenhouse gasses.
“The agency began with automobiles, declaring that their emissions
endangered public health and welfare,” said Upton. “That single
endangerment finding has since been used by EPA to launch an
unparalleled regulatory onslaught.”
Read it at Human Events
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