NY Times Editorial: "Where’s the Senate on This One?"

In "Where’s the Senate on This One?" (10  June 2010) the New York Times says [emphasis added]:

As early as Thursday, Americans will learn whether their senators have been paying the slightest attention to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The occasion will be a vote on a mischievous and potentially destructive resolution by Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican. It seeks to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s formal determination in 2009 that the buildup of greenhouse gases threatens public health and welfare.

That finding is the basis of E.P.A.’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide from vehicles and other sources. It is also one of the main underpinnings of the historic agreement in April to tighten fuel economy standards for the first time in more than 30 years. Repudiating the finding would cripple the E.P.A.’s ability to enforce that agreement as well as its authority to require stronger standards in the future. This is precisely the wrong thing to do in a country that needs to reduce its dependency on oil.

Ms. Murkowski’s proposal is objectionable for many other reasons. It would repudiate years of work by America’s most reputable scientists and public health experts. It would prevent the E.P.A. from regulating greenhouse gases from sources like refineries and power plants in the future. And it would send a discouraging message to a federal agency that appears to take its regulatory duties seriously, unlike the Minerals Management Service, which failed to police the oil industry.

Ms. Murkowski says she worries about oil dependency and global warming and is shocked by the gulf oil spill. She also says she would prefer that Congress pass a broad energy bill rather than handing E.P.A. “top down” regulatory authority over the economy.

President Obama would prefer a legislative solution as well. So would the E.P.A. But neither wants to unilaterally disarm the agency before Congress does something significant, on its own, about oil dependency and climate change. So far it has not.

Online Resources:

	Clean Air Act Under Attack - Help WWF Fight Back!
	Tell Congress to oppose efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act.

How you can help: The Senate is set to debate and vote on a climate & energy bill in the final weeks of July or early August (2010). Call your Senators and ask them to vote YES on a climate & energy bill that limits fossil fuel pollution.

Online WWF Resources Regarding U.S. Climate & Energy Policy:

• U.S. Federal Policy section, WWF blog
• Act For Our Future
• What does the Spill have to do with a Climate Bill?

More information on the EPA's final endangerment finding is available from EPA's Web site, including:

• Findings
• Technical Support Document
• Response to Comment Documents
• Press Release
• Press Kit
  • Legal Basis (PDF) (1 p., 117 KB, About PDF)
  • Health Effects (PDF) (1 p., 95 KB, About PDF)
  • Environmental and Welfare Effects (PDF) (1 p., 45 KB, About PDF)
  • Climate Change Facts (PDF) (1 p., 39 KB, About PDF)
  • Light Duty Vehicle Program (PDF) (1 p., 39 KB, About PDF)
  • Timeline (PDF) (1 p., 30 KB, About PDF)
• Frequently Asked Questions (PDF) (3 pp., 38 KB, About PDF)

U.S. Senate Proposal Would Increase Oil Dependence, Cost Consumers at Gas Pump.  Press release (9 June 2010) from Environment America. 

Postings from Joe Romm of Climate Progress:

• Inhofe: Fiorina ‘is supporting’ my push to gut the Clean Air Act, agrees climate change is a ‘hoax’ (10 June 2010). 
• Murkowski ‘dirty air’ proposal would increase oil dependence, cost consumers at gas pump (9 June 2010)
• Clean Air Lisa vs Dirty Air Lisa (7 June 2010)
• Sen. Jeff Merkley argues against Lisa “Dirty Air” Murkowski’s radical attempt to overrule science. (21 Jan 2010)
• The Dirty Air Act.  (20 Jan 2010)

No Dirty Air Act.  Site sponsored by Clean Energy Works.

Murkowski Move an Assault on Science, Science Group Says.  Press release (21 January 2010) from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

WWF Climate Change Blog:

• Clean Air Act Under Attack (8 June 2010)
• Alaska's Senator Murkowski Fiddles as Alaska Burns (25 May 2010)
• Former EPA Administrator Russell E. Train Urges Senate to Reject Efforts to Weaken Clean Air Act (25 May 2010)
• NY Times: Congressional Efforts to Undermine EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Pollutants are "Worse than Inaction" (13 March 2010)
• While Major Floods and a Rapidly Changing Climate Threaten North Dakota, Its Congressman Opposes Curbs on Emissions (25 Feb 2010)
• Virginia Researchers and Planners Warn of Climate Change Impacts on Coastal Areas, As Attorney General Challenges the Science (23 Feb 2010)
•  As Weather Extremes Hammer Arkansas Farms, Senator Lincoln Endorses Veto of Finding that Climate Change Threatens Farmers (27 Jan 2010)
• EPA sets timetable for regulating climate pollution (23 Feb 2010)
• U.S. EPA: Greenhouse Gases "Threaten the Public Health and Welfare of the American People" (7 Dec 2010)