I first became aware of Sen. Murkowski at the costs of cap-and-trade hearing I attended last week. She griped to the panel of experts about how it would cripple our already weakened economy and they pointed out that all the proposals on the table wouldn’t go into effect for until like 2012. Clearly, reality did not deter her from proposing this idiotic amendment.
UPDATE: My post was featured on the daily “Eco-New Roundup” and in a post on “Today in Climate Maneuvering” on Mother Jones‘ Blue Marble blog.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s attempt to block EPA regulation of greenhouse gases is DOA.
Although Murkowski (R-Alaska) will be introducing her amendment to the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill on the floor of the Senate later today, Joe Romm reports that her attempt to undermine the Clean Air Act will not come to a vote. As Kate Sheppard pointed out yesterday, the legally questionable provision would have been another setback during what the UN is optimistically referring to as “climate week.”
The provision was condemned not only by more than 30 environmental groups but also raised the ire of centrist legislators such as Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Yesterday at the Council on Competitiveness, Warner criticized the amendment for “simply putting off an inevitable decision.” He specifically rebuked the supposed economic concerns Murkowski cited in proposing the amendment and suggested that it “not only sacrifices American leadership but—equally important—it sacrifices our ability to get on board with…what I believe would be the greatest wealth-creation sector and job-creation sector in the next quarter century.”
The possibility of EPA greenhouse gas regulation has survived another day, but getting a comprehensive climate bill through the Senate before Copenhagen still looks difficult, if not impossible.
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