Congressional Republicans have begun their push-back against the Obama administration’s draconian carbon-emission regulations.
Yesterday, Senate approved two measures to nullify both the Clean Power Plan and another regulation affecting power plants. Both votes passed with a simple majority of 52-46.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and other lawmakers from coal-dependent states argued that the EPA rules are killing U.S. jobs without any sizable impact on climate change. “Their effect on global carbon levels? Essentially a rounding error,” Mr. McConnell said Tuesday. “Their effect on poor and middle-class families? Potentially devastating.”
Mr. Obama says that even if the regulations by themselves won’t slow climate change, they show U.S. leadership on the global stage leading up to United Nations climate negotiations set to begin Nov. 30.
The House of Representatives will consider the same measures soon. Such congressional action is largely symbolic, given that President Obama will probably veto any attempt to reign in his actions on climate change.
Meanwhile, nearly half of all states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over the Clean Power Plan, claiming the agency has grossly exceeded its authority.
Such resistance from Congress and the states may well create uncertainty about the United States’ ability to deliver on any environmental promises it makes at the upcoming Paris Climate Conference.