The House energy committee voted Tuesday to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate carbon emisssions after every single Republican on the panel voted down Democrat-sponsored amendments saying that global warming is real. Republicans plan to have the whole House will vote on the legislation before it recesses for Easter, The New York Times' John M. Broder reports.
Democrats offered three amendments recognizing that climate change is no joke and caused by humans--which nearly the entire scientific community agrees is true. Every single one of the 31 Republicans on the committee voted against the measures, Talking Points Memo's Evan McMorris-Santoro reports. All 21 Democrats voted for it, even though three of them voted with Republicans to strip the EPA of carbon regulating power.
The bill, called the Energy Tax Prevention Act, would repeal the EPA's claim that greenhouse gases threaten human health and the environment and prevent it from trying to regulate such emissions. Republicans say more regulation of carbon would drive up energy prices and hurt the economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has attached an amendment with nearly identical language to a small business bill.
"Y’know, whenever I use the term denier (as in 'global warming denier') I get lots of comments accusing me of using a loaded word," Phil Plait writes at Discover in a post suggesting Congress might repeal the law of gravity next. "But it’s not: it’s precise, and given what we’re seeing in Congress, it’s the exact word to use."
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