Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases and the same committee voted down a resolution denying a man-made arming connection and declaring the science of global warming “unequivocal.” The Senate’s top Republican also expressed his support for similar legislation attacking the science of climate change and blocking government efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
With Republicans controlling the House, the passage of a bill meant to permanently block the EPA’s ability to regulate industrial greenhouse gas emissions as relatively easy. The legislation advanced from the Energy and Commerce Committee on a 34-19 vote with three conservative Democrats — so-called “Blue Dogs” — joining every Republican in voting for the bill.
Republicans ignored the merits of science and cited jobs and economic factors as the reason for supporting the ban on government regulations to slow climate change. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the committee’s chairman, said that “new EPA regulations will increase costs for every manufacturer out there.”
Echoing these sentiments was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who on Tuesday announced his support for efforts in Congress to prevent government and EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions – he called it a “power grab” — and introduced his own legislation on the subject.
McConnell introduced an amendment to a small-business bill that would permanently block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources like power plants and refineries. The small-business bill is currently on the Senate floor.
“These new regulations would destroy jobs at a time when Americans need them most,” McConnell said in a floor statement Tuesday. “And they’d be especially devastating for states like Kentucky and other coal states.”
“They’re attempting to do through regulation what they couldn’t do through legislation, regardless of whether the American people want it or not,” McConnell said. “This is an insult to the millions of Americans who are already struggling to make ends meet or find a job.”
McConnell added that it was his hope “that we will vote to stop this power grab in its tracks.”
While the vote on EPA rules was substantively more important, a more compelling vote on a purely symbolic measure proved the depths of climate denial among the new majority in the House.
Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee put forward a series of non-binding resolutions with the intent to affirm the belief of the U.S. Congress that the science behind climate change is “unequivocal” and that humans are the cause of global warming. Every measure failed on party-line votes, with every Republican on the committee voting to deny the accepted climate science and put their doubts about global warming on the record.
Republicans on the committee said that climate change is “a theory that hasn’t been proven” and denounced the “high and mighty attitude” of lawmakers and scientists that believe climate change is real and is caused by human activity.
Some Republicans refuted the claim that global warming science has been settled. “We should not put the U.S. economy in a straightjacket because of a theory that hasn’t been proven,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). “To put this amendment into the law I think would go against everything that people on both sides of the aisle say they’re for.”
Others argued that Congress is obligated to handcuff EPA rules regardless of the science.
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) complained about the “high and mighty attitude” his colleagues were taking about science, while EPA has acknowledged that its rules alone won’t stop global warming. “We’re really being passed a placebo by the EPA when it comes to climate change and no one’s brave enough to say that,” he said.
This war on science and unprecedented votes to deny that climate change is a “proven theory” or that human activity is a leading cause comes from a committee stocked with members of both parties that have received major financial support from conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and Koch Industries, the country’s second-largest private corporation that they operate.
As Think Progress reports, 34 Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have received a total of almost $400,000 in contributions from Koch Industries.
Global Warming is not the sort of problem that politicians like. The consequences of not taking any steps are — however dire — going to occur long after the next election. And, of course, any steps would lead to reduced use of fossil fuels. That would displease companies who are heavy campaign contributors.
We went to war in Iraq over WMD’s with no reliable proof, but when it comes to climate change, one misconstrued email causes great doubt.
The Republicans create their own reality and when the tsunamis resulting from the rise of the oceans come rolling inland it will be Obama’s fault.
Who is surprised? Science is a myth to these folks and climate change (the indelible and irrefutable imprint of mankind on the environment) to them, is nothing more than a liberal conspiracy.
Meanwhile, the oceans are rising and our weather patterns are changing and impacting everything from the ozone to crop production.