Senate may vote today to stopt EPA from doing anything on CO2 - a Koch brothers win

[karynnj]

With all the other things going on, this has been completely under the radar. I saw it only because I turned on CSPAN 2 to see if the Senate was back in session - and heard Barrasso speaking on this. The Koch brothers are getting value for all their contributions.

There are three bill that might be voted on today.

The worst is McConnell/Inhofe which will eliminate the EPA's power on this completely. In Orwellian fashion, they claim it restores the EPA to its original Congressional intent. Here is THEIR discription.

Republicans are positioning themselves to declare victory tomorrow, even if Senate Democrats defeat Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's amendment to strip U.S. EPA of its climate change regulatory powers.

McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who authored the amendment text, have both said that while the amendment may not garner the 60 votes needed to clear the chamber tomorrow, its failure will be at the expense of the swing-state Democrats who are likely to vote against it.

"I can't think of a better time for senators to be on record as to how they feel," McConnell said, adding that Senate Democratic leaders had delayed the vote from before recess in order to "hustle to come up with enough votes to defeat it."

"And maybe they will, but it will be an opportunity for everybody to go on record so folks at home will know how senators feel about this regulation, which is going to have an extraordinary adverse impact on our economy," he said.

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs

Another is a Rockefeller bill that will delay the EPA from doing anything for two years. Rockefeller, good on many things, is not good here. There is little chance of getting anything legislative through the Senate, much less the current House - so this means NOTHING is done at the federal level.

There is also a Baucus bill exempts "small emitters" - including argriculture from the EPA's jurisdiction.

Here is a WSJ article (so you know the bias) on the politics of this. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704517404576222581494405442.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[karynnj]

1. Koch-linked group serves notice on Senate EPA vote

When I mentioned the Koch brothers, it was because they had funded all the climate denier lies last year and fought any bill ffrom passing. But, here is an article that speaks of their role here.

A conservative group that spent heavily in the 2010 elections is pushing Senate lawmakers to vote this week in favor of stripping the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The group Americans for Prosperity — which has strong ties to the conservative Koch brothers — is sending memos to senators urging them to support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) amendment to small-business legislation that’s on the Senate floor.

“The Obama administration’s attempt to use a decades-old statute to advance climate change policy via an unelected bureaucracy must be stopped,” the group states.

<snip>
Industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity are using ads to press politically vulnerable lawmakers to vote in favor of scuttling EPA climate rules.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/151869-coal-group-presses-senators-on-looming-vote-to-kill-epa-climate-rules

[pscot]

2. The Kochtopus

wraps its slimy, life sucking tentacles around the Senate.

[karynnj]

3. Reid delayed the votes until tomorow or Friday

There could end up being four votes on various EPA-related proposals, and all of them could fail. Nonetheless, the Senate's votes could further undercut international efforts to control global warming if a simple majority of the 100-member Senate votes in favor of any of the measures. Sixty votes will be needed to pass any one of the proposals.

* Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is pushing a bill to completely strip EPA of its authority to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.

<snip> (Rockefeller amendment snipped out to comply with 4 paragraphs.>

* Senator Max Baucus, also a Democrat, would exempt all agriculture operations from regulation, as well as any small operation -- one that emits less than 75,000 tons of carbon a year. The EPA says it only wants to focus now on large factories, oil refineries and coal-fueled electric utilities.

* Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow would suspend EPA regulation for two years but also create a single national standard for motor vehicle emissions. That could hobble California's attempts to impose tougher standards than the rest of the country after 2016.

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN3017544820110330

(Stabenow's bill is worse than Rockefeller's - and it is worse than than the status quo. (For the next two years, it might be worse than the McConnell one as it stop's CA's long time tougher standards for cars. )

Looking at this, you see what Kerry was up against when he tried to get 60 votes to move to dealing with climate change.

[ej510]

4. The democratic party needs to be cleaned out, we need to rid this party of corporate shills.

[karynnj]

5. On this issue, it is not just the corporate shills

There are many coal state Democrats, concerned about the economy, who can't think beyond the short term. Debbie Stabanow follows in the long tradition of the MI Democrats fighting ANYTHING that would force them to make more efficient, cleaner cars. They were HORRIBLE when they fought Kerry and McCain in 2000 or 2001 when they had a bipartisan bill to raise CAFE standards - back when McCain was decent on this issue. The sad thing is that Detroit would have been more successful had they led the way on energy efficient cars.

[Union Scribe]

7. People aren't buying energy efficient cars

That means that even though US makers are producing better mpg cars, the avg mpg's on the road aren't going up. Consumers have to walk the walk after all the complaints. And they're only trying to delay, not eliminate, the enforcement of new standards.

[karynnj]

8. In the case I referenced, Levin was a leader in defeating an increase in CAFE standards

He has ALWAYS been against every increase. Rockefeller is delaying the EPA enforcement for two years. The Stabenow bill is the same AND it legislates that all states must follow the national standard. This would permanently keep CA from having higher standards - something they have done for decades. (Also consider that postponed two years might become permanent.

I respect Levin and Stabenow and see that they are acting in what they see as the interest of their states, but they are weakening the EPA's ability to act.

[Name removed]

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[Exilednight]

9. Obama has this neat little tool called the VETO. If it becomes law, only one person to blame. n/t