G.O.P. vs. the Environment
NYT editorial
As of Friday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had voted 168 times this year to undercut clean air and water laws while blocking efforts to limit global warming, protect public lands and guard against future oil spills. Henry Waxman, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, calls this “the most anti-environmental Congress in history.”
Mr. Waxman, whose staff compiled that grim tally, can recall a time when Republicans voted for bills to protect the environment, as happened in 1990 when he and Republican moderates worked together to strengthen the 1970 Clean Air Act. Now a new Republican breed — driven by antiregulatory fervor, allegiance to industry and a refusal to accept the fact of climate change — seeks to tear apart the edifice of environmental law constructed largely under a Republican president, Richard Nixon, and sustained until recently by bipartisan support.
Some of the House’s votes have seemed entirely reflexive, like a 240-to-169 thumbs down for a sensible amendment requiring regulators to seek independent advice on drilling safety from an organization not affiliated with the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s lobby. Far more worrisome have been votes that would dangerously weaken basic clean air and clean water laws and undermine the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate toxic pollutants like mercury and set clean air standards based solely on science.
The Senate and the White House may be able to stop the worst legislation. But the Republicans’ assault is relentless, and in the bargaining over spending bills there is always a danger that a few bad bills may make it through.
(More here.)
As of Friday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had voted 168 times this year to undercut clean air and water laws while blocking efforts to limit global warming, protect public lands and guard against future oil spills. Henry Waxman, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, calls this “the most anti-environmental Congress in history.”
Mr. Waxman, whose staff compiled that grim tally, can recall a time when Republicans voted for bills to protect the environment, as happened in 1990 when he and Republican moderates worked together to strengthen the 1970 Clean Air Act. Now a new Republican breed — driven by antiregulatory fervor, allegiance to industry and a refusal to accept the fact of climate change — seeks to tear apart the edifice of environmental law constructed largely under a Republican president, Richard Nixon, and sustained until recently by bipartisan support.
Some of the House’s votes have seemed entirely reflexive, like a 240-to-169 thumbs down for a sensible amendment requiring regulators to seek independent advice on drilling safety from an organization not affiliated with the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s lobby. Far more worrisome have been votes that would dangerously weaken basic clean air and clean water laws and undermine the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate toxic pollutants like mercury and set clean air standards based solely on science.
The Senate and the White House may be able to stop the worst legislation. But the Republicans’ assault is relentless, and in the bargaining over spending bills there is always a danger that a few bad bills may make it through.
(More here.)
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