Reid Promises Vote On Blocking EPA From Addressing Climate Change

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow a vote on legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases for two years, he told reporters in the Capitol today.

Following his weekly press briefing, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked if the Senate wold vote on EPA preemption.

"Not before we leave here," said Reid, referring to the three-week congressional schedule ahead. "This year."

Reid's commitment to give preemption a vote this year means that it is headed to the Senate floor during a lame-duck session, meaning that lawmakers will be less accountable for their votes -- and those who aren't returning in January won't be accountable at all.

The commitment to give preemption a vote is related to an earlier fight over legislation from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would have blocked EPA action. In order to defeat Murkowski's proposal, Democratic aides said, Reid promised holdout senators a vote on a two-year freeze -- a measure sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) -- later in the year.

"Senator Rockefeller's EPA Delay bill is gaining momentum every day in Congress. Rockefeller is fighting for legislation to suspend -- for two years -- harmful EPA regulations to regulate greenhouse gases because he believes that Congress -- and not the unelected EPA -- must be responsible for determining our nation's energy policy," a Rockefeller aide wrote in an email. "Rockefeller expects a vote on this important legislation this year and he is aggressively pursuing this in Congress."

In the absence of Senate action to address climate change, while scientists warn that the carbon concentration in the atmosphere is reaching a hazardous point, EPA regulation is the last resort.

Comments

[politicalpinball]

01:18 PM on 10/01/2010

One day, government officials will be held accountable for their arrogant decision of inaction. Charges will be nothing short of gross negligence. They ignore the consensus of every scientific body of national or international standing. They dismiss the decision by both the Pentagon and CIA to establish Climate Change as a threat to National Security (first during the Bush Administration). The Federal government, being the only body capable of negating the consequences, has failed to satisfy a core responsibility, by law, to protect the American people. Therefore, those government officials, especially in the Senate, will be held responsible and charged with nothing short of gross negligence.

[martinfrosa]

11:30 AM on 09/17/2010

Reid is a jewel!

Maybe we should tell him that he has just won the eco-hypocrisy award for September by rolling up to the "Clean Energy Summit" in Las Vegas, Nevada last week in a fleet of giant SUVs.

Well done Harry! Well done! Clean energy for thee, but not for me. Link - http://michellemalkin.com/2010/09/15/this-weeks-al-gore-award-for-superior-enviro-hypocrisy-goes-to/

[DocSkull]

08:14 AM on 10/06/2010

"in a fleet of giant SUVs"

If you had thought a bit, you probably wouldn't have posted that. Two isn't a fleet and the Chevy Suburban isn't one of the larger SUVs. The test for waste is not the size of the vehicle, but its use. At least five or six people appear to be with the Senator in the video. There may well have been others and equipment. That isn't a bad fit. As you say it was the "Clean Energy Summit" not the "No Energy Summit." Lastly, those vehicles are selected by the Secret Service, not the senator.

[Kassandra]

09:26 AM on 09/17/2010

Hey Reid! Did you watch the news today about the humongous STORM in NYC?????
http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125611/new-yorkers-assess-damage-from-possible-tornado
A tornado in NYC?
I bet this winter is going to be a real looloo

[Overtone]

08:40 PM on 09/16/2010

A better way to fight Global Warming: Cheap Green Energy

Bjorn Lomborg in an OpEd piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, correcting the widespread incorrect impression that he did not earlier believe Global Warming was a problem, suggested
the best way to attack that problem is to make green energy so inexpensive that everyone will want it.

As it happens, that is in the process of becoming a viable alternative.

And it can happen faster than might be imagined. The reason is the thus far little recognized potential impact of rising solar flare activity as the sunspot cycle moves towards a projected peak in 2013. A huge solar flare missed the earth earlier this month. If one hits us, according to NASA, 130 million Americans live in areas that may lose power for protracted periods of time - at a cost the first year of between $1trillion and $2 trillion. As a comparison Ted Koppel recently mentioned that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan presently have a combined cost of $1 trillion.

See: http://www.aesopinstitute.org for additional information.

The strategy outlined there reflects Lomborg's observation that we need to pursue cheap green power.

That can clearly be done and will have enormous positive economic impact.

It can also open a new door to broadly supported political action to minimize the damage from a possible solar storm and encourage development of cheap green energy to reduce the need to import oil and burn fossil fuels.

Time to try something new!

[vetxcl]

02:56 PM on 09/16/2010

oh great. now that sen. reid's involved, there's a higher chance of it getting screwed up.

[charles116]

12:21 PM on 09/16/2010

Ya know, nothing kills jobs like a lack of oxygen and drinkable water.

[Kassandra]

09:27 AM on 09/17/2010

F&F....for gallows humor

[lbsaltzman]

11:42 AM on 09/16/2010

If there is one democrat I hope is defeated it is cowardly, and ineffectual Senator Reid. I hope somebody in the Senate has the courage to fillibuster this bill.

[she343]

07:44 PM on 09/16/2010

ya =but look at who his replacement would be!

[Kassandra]

09:28 AM on 09/17/2010

I don't know...she's looking better and better...at least she'd honest about her insanity

[VikingQuest]

10:35 PM on 09/15/2010

The day we can legislate the ability to control our climate is the day I'll but into cap & trade

[DocSkull]

11:47 PM on 09/15/2010

"The day we can legislate the ability to control our climate is the day I'll but into cap & trade"

The goal is to manage our CO2 production, not control the climate.

[charles116]

12:22 PM on 09/16/2010

You vant to control the climate move to Miami.

[John Mainstream]

07:57 PM on 09/15/2010

Since cap & trade would never pass the Senate, Senator Reid should focus on providing permanent tax credits for renewable energy and conservation.

[Kassandra]

09:30 AM on 09/17/2010

Cap and Trade is so...Kyoto. It's 10 years out of date and wouldn't work anyway. It's way too late for Cap & Trade

[Teagle03]

04:48 PM on 09/15/2010

We should all take a month off for the holidays .That would be alot of income tax lost though. And the little folks should just keep working.

[Teagle03]

04:44 PM on 09/15/2010

republicrats. one party

[relians]

01:00 PM on 09/15/2010

another attack on our planet. everywhere we look someone is trying to remove restraints from industry ruining our home. i just don't get it. seems that if it's good for someones pocket book, whatever destruction may be done is ok. it's like the zorg scene in the 5th element, when he destroys a glass and then is excited that the bots that clean everything are busy. we create jobs by allowing destructive practices, and then create more to clean up the mess. cool!

[Kassandra]

09:36 AM on 09/17/2010

Called unrestrained capitalism. We're in uncharted areas as this has never happened before and probably won't happen again as we enter the last great extinction.

Religion has alot to do with this as it either provides an excuse, because the earth is so evil or the earth is so evil.
funny how something they say GAWD made can be so evil in their eyes. humanity got off on a really bad foot about 2-3000 years ago when patriarchy messed up the baalnce between the genders and lumped the earth in with the wimmin they were trying to control.
Now, it's really too late, in fact, it's being ramped up in the only country that might have had the power to change it.

[supportamerica]

01:00 PM on 09/15/2010

That is exactly what I have been trying to say, politicians from any party don't have any more care for their constituents that the man in the moon. Always follow the money with these people.

[khunlan]

09:29 PM on 09/15/2010

Especially that Rocky Feller guy.

[doubleB]

10:07 PM on 09/16/2010

My guess is, he just wants these idlots on record, before we vote in November. Hopefully it'll either stir up the base or turn off the 10% or so of Republicans who actually believe in science.

[guveqzero]

12:21 PM on 09/15/2010

When Senators talk nonsense, their lips move but you can hear nothing. Now, what will their greenhouse legislation do and why? What jobs loss exactly are they talking about? The 4 people running a coal strip mine? Those day labor jobs being on a drill platform in the Gulf of Mexico? This whole mess has been packaged to fail from the start. Just gradually raise import tariffs on oil and watch the US go green, just like Europe. Why the cloak and dagger?

[Jon Dorian]

05:45 AM on 09/16/2010

Europe isn't going green. In fact, in the next few years, Europe will attack the mid-east nations for control of their oil. Europe is already showing concern that oil imports will soon began to dwindle.

[frappe]

12:10 PM on 09/15/2010

The problem with Rockefeller's approach is that Congress is susceptible to "non-scientific" sources of pressure, most notably the "corporatocracy" that essentially exerts its will over our legislators who generally succumb to their demands. I'm afraid that this is exactly the case where Rockefeller is concerned insofar as COAL is the main export from W. Virginia.

So science, which is based on objective analysis is trumped by politics which is based on money.

[frappe]

12:13 PM on 09/15/2010

...and if I might add, this is EXACTLY why real reforms that are desperately needed are almost impossible to legislate in this kind of plutocratic corporatocracy that we are now ruled by.