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Breitbart
Obama
bypassing Congress with
climate agenda
By William Bigelow
26 Aug 2013
Barack
Obama is moving full speed
ahead with his climate agenda, bypassing Congress by pushing regulatory
actions
and executive orders.
A
crop of regulations at the
Environmental Protection Agency intends to restrict pollution from new
and
existing power plants by implementing new emissions standards. The
battle lines
are drawn. Democrats and environmentalists are complain about the GOP’s
stand against
crippling industry, while the GOP maintains that Obama is doing an
end-run
around Congress.
Obama
said on Friday,
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen too often in Congress is that the
fossil fuel
industries tend to be very influential — let's put it that way — on the
energy
committees in Congress and they tend not to be particularly sympathetic
to
alternative energy strategies.”
Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-CA),
chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works,
complained
on Obama's behalf, “He’s doing it with one hand tied behind his back."
Heather
White, executive director
of the Environmental Working Group, chimed in, “It’s great that he’s
taking
this step through his administrative power. Congress is going to be a
big
challenge, as we know. But the science is clear and people are ready
and
they’re ready for his leadership.”
But
GOP members, concerned that the
regulations will cripple the coal industry and raise the price of gas
and home
energy, shot back. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), chairman of the House’s
subcommittee on energy policy, said, “Because it’s very difficult to
pass any
legislation, they’re doing more by regulatory actions and executive
order. To
think that [they] are really serious about removing coal from the
equation of our
energy needs is a big, big stretch.”
Revised
draft emission standards
for new power plants are due from the Administration in September; new
standards for existing plants will be proposed by the EPA next June and
implemented in 2015.
Read
the rest of the article at Breitbart
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