Connect with us on Facebook!
Subscribe.
Follow us on Twitter!
Make us your home page!
Authors, sign in!The Senate is expected to vote on an amendment today [ed. note - soon. tomorrow?] that would take away the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit green house gas emissions from oil refineries, coal-burning power plants and other industry polluters.
As reported in Environment and Energy Daily, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has filed a proposed amendment to annual spending legislation for the EPA that would prohibit the agency from using funding for regulating global warming pollution except those from cars or other “mobile” sources.
Ironic, considering that the proposed exempted sources are responsible for the lion’s share of U.S. carbon pollution.
Senator Murkowski’s amendment to block the EPA’s ability to regulate global warming pollution from power plants would let corporate polluters ignore the agency’s recent endangerment finding on greenhouse gases until a more convenient time. Unfortunately, when it comes to protecting public health, there is no such thing as a "more convenient" time.
As a Kansan, this amendment strikes me with a sense of déjà vu. Back home, state Republicans tried numerous times to create legislation with a similar effect of Senator Murkowski’s amendment. By stripping the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Big Oil and Big Coal will no longer have to take the future of our planet and health of its citizens in account.
We were able to move past these backward policies in Kansas, and it is my hope that federal legislators will follow suit by ushering in a 21st century clean energy economy for the whole country.
You can help. Contact your senators today and urge them to oppose this amendment since it clearly puts special interests ahead of the health and welfare of the American public.
Published September 22, 2009 by Kelly Jacobsen |
Permalink
| Tags:
Climate Change
Environment
Global Warming
Pat Roberts
Sam Brownback
Senate
