House Republicans want to strip EPA’s greenhouse gas powers
House Republicans want to strip EPA’s greenhouse gas powers
TEXT OF STORY
ADRIENE HILL: Now on to more debate in Washington. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to face a hostile audience today. The Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have called Lisa Jackson to testify.
As Sarah Gardner from the Marketplace Sustainability Desk reports, they want to block her agency from regulating pollution linked to climate change.
SARAH GARDNER: After Congress failed last year to pass limits on greenhouse gases, the EPA decided it had to take action. The agency’s now developing new standards for emissions from fossil fuel power plants and petroleum refineries.
But Republicans are fighting back. The new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has introduced a bill to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. Fred Upton calls the new rules an EPA “power grab” that will raise energy prices and threaten the economic recovery.
Mark Bernstein, managing director of the USC Energy Institute, expects the EPA will survive this legislative assault.
Mark Bernstein: It’s clear that it wouldn’t pass the Senate or that the president would veto it anyway. So it’s sending a message.
The message that Republicans are keeping up the heat, not only on climate change regulation, but big government.
I’m Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
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