WASHINGTON — House lawmakers skipped out of town on Friday until after the November elections, but not before pushing through a sweeping anti-environmental package that has no chance of becoming law.
Republican leaders teed up the Stop The War On Coal Act, H.R. 3409, as their last vote before lawmakers hit the campaign trail full time. It passed 233 to 175, with 19 Democrats joining nearly all House Republicans in voting for it.
Despite its title, the bill isn’t just about the coal industry: it repackages four previously passed House GOP bills, plus adds in another one, aimed at blocking carbon pollution standards. Specifically, the package would eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean car standards, nullify the EPA’s mercury and air toxic standards, weaken the Clean Water Act and block efforts to reduce damage from coal mining.
The bill already has a White House veto threat on it, and there’s no chance it would move in the Senate, but Republicans went ahead and passed it anyway.
