The House Energy & Commerce Committee approved a bill that halts the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to enforce greenhouse gas reductions March 15. “We must stop the EPA from pursuing its runaway regulatory agenda,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), committee chair, stated. H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act “Amends the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.” Democrats who have a majority in the Senate immediately posted barriers. “The panel put the interests of politicians and big polluters ahead of the advice of medical experts and scientists who tell us EPA must act to make the air safer and cleaner for our children to breathe,” noted Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). A hearing on the same issue in the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee March 17 raised the problems of municipalities’ ability to afford meeting EPA standards. EPA enforcement’s effect on jobs continues to be a national sore spot. “For jobs, we’re going up against states with cheaper utility costs because they’re going dirty,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-DE). “We pay higher health care costs. It’s not fair.” EPA’s authority over greenhouse gas reduction enforcement has been an issue in the House since the last election. The Obama administration authorized EPA--in a regulatory manner--to begin enforcement on greenhouse gas reduction. This was after two years of failed legislation that would have otherwise instituted a lowering of carbon dioxide pollution. Failed legislation would have created a cap-and-trade market.
