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For weeks, environmental groups have been pressuring to defeat Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski's resolution to weaken the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Our junior senator was at the heart of such pressure, as he was a key swing vote in deciding whether Murkowski's resolution would gain favor in the senate.
Rockefeller introduced a separate bill that would have more narrowly limited EPA's authority by imposing a two-year time-out on EPA climate rules for stationary sources, but he has said he had trouble advancing the measure.
In other words, the Rockefeller bill would give a two-year grace period for any EPA environmental regulations to take effect. The White House, thankfully, has promised to veto the Murkowski disapproval resolution, should it somehow pass in the senate.
At stake here is Senator Rockefeller's unfortunate stance that the coal industry and other carbon-producing companies should not be regulated at the federal level (e.g., very little or no regulation) and his wrongheaded support of an anti-environmental agenda. Rockefeller needs to rescind his support for the Murkowski amendment and withdraw his alternate, weak bill that stifles the EPA's ability to protect communities from industry-created environmental destruction. Rockefeller's antiquated stance here is anything but progressive, unfortunately.
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