New legislation is being introduced in the Senate by John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming that will take away the regulatory powers of the Environmental Protection Agency, also called the EPA.
This has always been a goal of the Republican party, and now with the numbers they’ve gained in the House of Representatives and the Senate, they are determined to pursue their ill-advised goals.
So what will Mr. Barrasso’s new legislation do?
- It will overturn the EPA’s 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are harmful to public health and the environment.
- It will stop any actions by the EPA to regulate or stop any greenhouse gas emission without approval from the Congress
- It will stop any federal laws from discussing or referring to global warming. These laws includes the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The bill will also allow regulation on pollutants and other greenhouse gases to go forward if an immediate threat is posed to the general public, so if a company continues to expose the public to polluted air that may possibly pose a threat in the future, then according to this bill, no regulation will be allowed on the companies.
The bill will also allow a previously negotiated vehicle mileage and emission standard agreement to go forward, but it takes away the power to manage how the regulations are enforced from the EPA and shifts the responsibility to the Department of Transportation.
The global warming policy director for the National Wildlife Federation, Mr. Joe Mendelson, disagrees with the basis of Mr. Barrasso’s bill. Mr. Mendelson, who was part of the legal team that won the Supreme Court case that led to the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public welfare and the environment, said;
“It would create a parade of polluter loopholes allowing for unlimited carbon pollution. Americans don’t want Congress undermining The EPA’s work on new clean vehicle standards and cleaning up dirty smokestacks.”
In a statement, Mr. Barrasso explains the reasoning for his bill;
“It’s time for the administration to face the facts: Americans rejected cap and trade because they know it means higher energy prices and lost jobs. Washington agencies are now trying a backdoor approach to regulate our climate by abusing existing laws.”
“I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Washington doesn’t impose Cap and Trade policies in any form.”
This bill is of no surprise. Republicans have a proven track record of protecting companies over the lives of real living (polluted air) breathing Americans. The EPA’s goal is to make sure that these companies maintain some standards in the amount of gas emission they’re allowed to emit into the atmosphere, but according to the Republican way of thinking, doing so will impose unnecessary regulations, cause the company to loose some of their profits, and worst of all ultimately result in a healthier environment for the nation.
According to their ideology, a healthy nation is of less importantance than the right of a company to dump infinite amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere for the sake of profit for said company.
Profits over human lives!
