Inhofe told the story of his granddaughter Maggie, who he said was brainwashed at her public school to believe that human emissions were warming the Earth.
Inhofe urges EPA opponents to lobby their senators on air rule veto
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Thursday, May 17, 2012
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Inhofe urges EPA opponents to lobby their senators on air rule veto
Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Link to Article
Two Democrats have signed on to support a resolution by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to kill U.S. EPA’s new rule for mercury emissions from power plants, the senator said last night.
Inhofe, who is probably the Senate’s most vocal critic of EPA air quality and climate rules, appeared on a webcast hosted by the conservative group FreedomWorks to officially unveil his resolution to veto the so-called Utility MACT rule. He told participants to call their senators—especially Democrats—to urge them to support the measure.
The resolution, S.J. Res. 37, can now be brought to the Senate floor at Inhofe’s discretion and be passed with a 51-vote simple majority. It is not expected to pass, but Inhofe has said he will bring it to the floor anyway to force senators to cast politically difficult votes that he says will show their level of support for the coal that “runs this machine called America.”
Inhofe, who is top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, did not name the Democratic duo who would be supporting the bill. But their voting records make Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) the most likely candidates.
Inhofe said he had discussed the resolution with other Democrats from fossil fuel states who he said should have an interest in supporting the resolution of disapproval, including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Virginia Democrats Mark Warner and Jim Webb also appeared persuadable, he said.
“I think they might do it,” he said. “I think they need to be encouraged by people in Virginia.”
But two other Democrats who face tough races for re-election this year have not indicated they will not support the measure, he said: Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Inhofe panned Casey as not sufficiently supportive of his state’s natural gas development as well as of its coal interests and said Brown was contributing to job losses in coal-rich Ohio. But he said both men should support his resolution if enough voters ask them to. Still, he predicted their defeat and that Republicans would “take over the Senate and have two to spare.”
“I’ll be chairman again after the next election,” Inhofe said.
Inhofe expressed less certainty that President Obama would lose to his likely Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But if there is a change of administration and if Obama releases a laundry list of rules on the way out the door, he said, a Republican Congress and president could quickly veto them through the use of the Congressional Review Act, the same tool he plans to use this month or next to try to knock down Utility MACT.
Inhofe did part ways with his hosts at FreedomWorks on the question of congressional earmarks. He said that by channeling funds to projects in the state, lawmakers were doing what they were supposed to do. “That’s appropriations and authorizations,” he said. Without Congress taking the lead on spending decisions, he said, they would be left to “unelected bureaucrats.”
“That was why Obama was behind the whole earmark ban, because we ceded our authority to him,” said Inhofe, in a statement that might have surprised conservative House Republicans who campaigned on earmark elimination two years ago.
To illustrate the dangers of leaving policy decisions to unelected agency staffers, Inhofe told the story of his granddaughter Maggie, who he said was brainwashed at her public school to believe that human emissions were warming the Earth.
He also pointed to former EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz, who now famously compared his enforcement tactics for “fracking” with those of the Roman conquerors. “There are others who may be just as bad as he is,” he said. Inhofe has introduced a bill that would require regional administrators to be confirmed by the Senate.