Rockefeller Bill Would Gut the EPA

Peter Rothberg | March 16, 2011

This morning the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Upton-Inhofe bill [1] (H.R. 910) on a largely party line vote of 34 to 19. The legislation attempts to overturn the EPA’s scientific finding that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases endanger public health and welfare and thus require regulation. The NRDC's Pete Altman live blogged [2] most of the markup. It will go to a full House vote some time in the next few weeks, where it is expected to pass easily. Meanwhile Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered the same bill as an amendment to an unrelated small business bill.

Now Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller has an alternate proposal [3] which would delay EPA regulations for two years.The problem: his bill would have the same result as Inhofe's: it would kill EPA climate rules [4], as the eminent climate blogger Dave Roberts [5] detailed at Grist.