Senators John Kerry, Joseph Leiberman and Lindsey Graham drafting legislation to weaken the EPA

[Better Believe It]

Climate Bill Would Curb EPA
by Lisa Lerer
April 14, 2010


Efforts to limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases has emerged as a major battleground in the climate debate, as three key senators move toward releasing the first draft of their revamped climate bill.

Recent drafts of the legislation would hobble the EPA by limiting the agency’s regulatory powers under the Clean Air Act, according to lawmakers and lobbyists familiar with the bill.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who’s crafting the climate bill with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), says the provision is necessary to win business backing for the bill.

Language pre-empting the EPA and state laws in the bill is also needed to win the votes of key Senate moderates on both sides of the aisle.

“I think it’s going to help to get a lot of people’s votes,” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said of the provision. “I also think it’s the right thing to do. If you have a national goal, you can’t also have 50 goals.”

But while many environmentally minded Democrats are open to compromising on controversial offshore drilling and nuclear proposals, several said they could not support a bill that would pre-empt EPA authority.

Utilities, oil refiners and other business interests have lobbied hard to hobble the EPA’s rule-making authority, fearing a blizzard of climate laws on top of the new national standard that would be created by congressional legislation. Industry argues that the overlapping rules would make it difficult for companies to estimate the total costs of the new climate rules.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has introduced legislation barring the agency from instituting rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other industrial sources for the next two years.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) introduced companion legislation in the House, with coal-state Democratic Reps. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia and Rick Boucher of Virginia as co-sponsors.

In response to concerns voiced by moderate Democrats, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that she expects the agency to weaken its proposed pollution standards and delay implementation of the new rules until 2011.


Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have been working together to craft climate legislation.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/14-2

[blindpig]

1. Ah, bipartisanship...

team players of the Money Party.

[karynnj]

2. Their goal is to get a bill that will reduce carbon emissions by 17%

The fact is that both Senators Kerry and Lieberman have actually been working on this since Gore held his first hearings in the Senate. Far longer than the Commondreams critics.

The provisions of the bill are not yet public - so they are simply speculating.