News & Views item - June 2010

 

 

US Senate to Consider Overturning EPA's Endangerment Finding. (June 10, 2010)

The United States Senate plans to vote today on a measure that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Resolution of Disapproval, a rarely used procedure that only requires 51 votes to pass, is sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican-Arkansas) and has 41 cosponsors from both parties. It would nullify EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, thereby striking EPA's authority to regulate GHG emissions. Although the resolution is unlikely to become law, the vote is seen as a bellwether on climate change legislation.

 

Furthermore, the Resolution of Disapproval is less likely to pass in the House of Representatives, and President Obama yesterday promised to veto it if it reachs his desk.

 

ScienceNow reports that in the meantime two letters signed by a total of nearly 2000 scientists and academics consider that Senator Murkowski's resolution is a "rejection" of science. "The supporters of this amendment do not have a great respect for science," Kirsten Engel, a law professor at the University of Arizona, told ScienceNow.

 

Note added June 11, 2010: The good news is -- An effort by US Senator Lisa Murkowski (R–AK) to reject a finding by EPA that carbon dioxide endangers human health was defeated  in a 47-to-53 vote.

 

"The bad news is that in a 60-vote Senate, it's hard to imagine a climate bill, or even a mere energy bill that does something about coal-fired plants, getting through," wrote liberal columnist Ezra Klein of The Washington Post.