UPDATED: Senate Rejects Measure to Bar EPA from Regulating GHGs
<p>A measure that would have stripped the EPA of its authority to regulate emissions failed in the U.S. Senate by 10 votes.</p>
Image CC licensed by Flickr user Allie_Caulfield
[Editor's note: The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a similar measure, the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, on a 255-172 vote.]
The U.S. Senate rejected a measure that would bar the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) attached a measure to a small business bill that would have stripped the EPA of its authority to regulate emissions. The measure needed 60 votes to pass, but only received 50.
In the lower chamber, the U.S. House of Representatives appears poised to pass a similar bill today restricting the EPA-led climate regulations and essentially overturning a 2007 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the EPA's authority to regulate emissions. The If passed, the House bill, the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, would also prevent California's ability to set tougher tailpipe emissions rules than the rest of the nation.
President Barack Obama has suggested he would veto a bill preventing EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user Allie_Caulfield.
