The votes are in, and the US Senate has rejected multiple attempts to prevent the US Environmental Protection Agency from implementing greenhouse gas regulations (Politico). Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, the Republican-controlled House has gone the other way by rejecting a simple amendment endorsing the basic science behind global warming.
Senate Democrats followed a divide-and-conquer strategy by providing conservative members of their own party the opportunity to vote on three different amendments to a small-business bill that would have scaled back EPA authority in some fashion. All three failed dramatically, but so did the main Republican amendment, which would have overturned EPA’s official finding on the threat of global warming and eliminated its authority over greenhouse gases. The final vote on the Republican amendment was 50-50, well short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the infamous filibuster.
The White House released the following statement:
The administration is encouraged by the Senate’s actions today to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect public health under the Clean Air Act. By rejecting efforts to rollback EPA’s common-sense steps to safeguard Americans from harmful pollution, the Senate also rejected an approach that would have increased the nation’s dependence on oil, contradicted the scientific consensus on global warming, and jeopardized America’s ability to lead the world in the clean energy economy. The Clean Air Act is a vital tool in protecting our families – particularly children – from a wide variety of harmful pollutants that cause asthma and lung disease, and the administration remains committed to protecting this important law.
The Republican amendment, offered by senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, mirrors House legislation marshaled by Representative Fred Upton (Republican, Michigan). For a bit of background, see our earlier coverage here and here. Nature also weighed in with an editorial, which as it happens was cited by Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) in support of his amendment to put Congress on record as accepting the science behind global warming.
“It may be difficult for us to agree on a solution to climate change,” Waxman said Wednesday evening, “but we should at least be able to agree that it is a real problem and one that we need to address.”
“This [vote] is not on the underlying science of climate change – that has to be made clear,” said Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin who said that EPA’s regulatory efforts will merely kill jobs. “This amendment flunks the cost-benefit analysis.”
Republicans went on to defeat Waxman’s amendment in a largely party-line vote, but a final vote on passage of the legislation was delayed until tomorrow. Thought likely to pass, the bill isn’t going to go very far given the White House’s veto threat and the Senate’s vote just hours ago. But the attack won’t stop there: The Republicans next target is the spending bill currently being negotiated to avoid a government shutdown. And if that fails, there is always the standard appropriations process, which this Congress has yet to begin.
UPDATE: As expected, the US House of Representatives passed the Upton bill on a largely party-line vote of 255 to 172 Thursday afternoon. See the Republican response here, and the Democratic response here.