Upton-Inhofe
---
House, Senate to Vote on Anti-Climate Amendments Wednesday
Posted by Brad Johnson on Tuesday, April 05, 2011
After a contentious House Rules Committee hearing on Tuesday, the full chamber will take up H.R. 910, the Upton-Inhofe Energy Tax Prevention Act, on Wednesday. In the upper chamber, the Senate is scheduled to begin votes at 4 pm on the climate amendments to S. 493, including Baucus amendment no. 236, Stabenow-Brown no. 277, Rockefeller no. 215, and McConnell no. 183, which is the Upton-Inhofe bill.
At the rules hearing on H.R. 910, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) submitted several amendments to change the title of bill, including the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act” and “Protecting Americans from Polar Bears Act.”
---
Upton-Inhofe bill (H.R. 910)
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/image_uploads/HR910FactSheet.pdf
basically prvents epa on co2?
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2011/03/14/upcoming-house-committee-vote-on-bill-to-kill-epa-regulation-of-greenhouse-gases/
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room.
During yesterday's debate on the Upton-Inhofe bill (H.R. 910) to block climate pollution rules, Democrats who support clean energy manufacturing debunked conservative myths about the green economy. Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) discussed their amendment to study the economic impact to American competitiveness of abolishing climate standards while the rest of the world wins the future. With the help of Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), they debunked the myths of a hapless Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). Inslee decried the eagerness of the GOP to "shut down the government":
It is deeply disappointing that our Republican colleagues are so willing, able, and apparently eager to shut down the government. This bill fundamentally shuts down the government. It shuts down the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to help lead us into a clean energy future. Why shut down the agency that can help develop these biofuels that we were just talking about? Why do they want to shut down the engine of innovation? Shutting down the government is not a solution. Shutting down the EPA is not a solution. Shutting down American innovation is not a solution.
...
Myth: China and India won't impose limits on climate pollution. The fact is, as Doyle explained, China is moving forward both with taxes on energy-intensive industries and cap-and-trade systems to limit carbon pollution. China also pased ambitious clean energy mandates in 2005 that are driving its explosion of green manufacturing. India imposed a carbon tax last year, and its energy efficiency progress is outstripping the United States.
Myth: Climate standards kill the manufacturing economy. In fact, Germany, which has some of the most stringent climate and clean energy regulations on the planet, now has $41.2 billion of private investment in the new economy, leaving the United States in third place behind Germany and China. Germany is one of the world's top economic powerhouses because its commitment to advanced manufacturing -- demonstrating that industrial jobs don't require a race to the bottom.
Myth: Cap-and-trade is a socialist-liberal-progressive plot to destroy the economy. As Ryan colorfully explained, Republican idol Ronald Reagan was the first president to implement cap-and-trade markets, successfully eliminating leaded gasoline and ozone-destroying pollutants. George H. W. Bush implemented a cap-and-trade market to stop acid rain pollution with supporters like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).
Kinzinger's claim that the Upton-Inhofe bill, which amends the Clean Air Act, "doesn't change the Clean Air Act at all," doesn't even rise to the level a debunkable myth. That's just a lie.
Unfortunately, the Tea Party climate zombies that run the House of Representatives ignored the reality today, voting to pass H.R. 910 by a vote of 255 to 172, with 19 Democrats supporting the Republican effort to deny science and deny America a clean and healthy future.
Transcript:
....
fact sheet
Prepared by Committee on Energy and Commerce, Democratic Staff
Oppose the Upton-Inhofe Bill
H.R. 910 Guts the Clean Air Act, Threatens Public Health
The Upton-Inhofe bill, H.R. 910, is based on the unsubstantiated premise that scientists are all
wrong that carbon pollution threatens public health and the environment. First, H.R. 910
legislatively repeals a scientific finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse
gases endanger public health and welfare. Second, the Upton-Inhofe bill would broadly
eliminate EPA’s authority to address emissions of greenhouse gases and the danger of climate
change. This is an unprecedented action by members of Congress to substitute their opinions for
a scientific finding that EPA made based on the best available scientific research and
understanding.
The Upton-Inhofe bill would:
• Overturn the Supreme Court’s opinion finding that EPA has the authority to regulate
greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
• Overturn EPA’s scientific determination that greenhouse gases endanger human health
and the environment.
• Prohibit EPA from requiring stationary sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Prohibit EPA from further reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and
securing ancillary energy security benefits from reducing demand for oil.
• Repeal California’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles
and repeal other states’ authority to adopt such standards.
• Prohibit EPA from requiring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from other mobile
sources, such as planes, trains, boats, and large construction equipment and securing
ancillary energy security benefits from reducing demand for oil.
• Prohibit EPA from enforcing existing greenhouse gas reporting requirements.
• Interfere with EPA’s implementation of Title VI of the Clean Air Act, which addresses
ozone-depleting chemicals and substitutes for such chemicals.
• Undermine Administration negotiating positions under the Montreal Protocol on
Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
• Create legal uncertainty about the status of the recent motor vehicle standards adopted by
EPA as well as proposed standards for heavy duty vehicles.
• Call into question EPA’s authority to implement voluntary programs to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Prepared by Committee on Energy and Commerce, Democratic Staff
• Create new litigation opportunities for opponents of regulation of conventional
pollutants.
This legislation conflicts with the consensus of climate scientists and the world's most
authoritative scientific organizations, including:
• The National Academy of Sciences, which reported in 2010: “Climate change is
occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for—and in
many cases is already affecting—a broad range of human and natural systems.”
• The premier scientific institutions of all of the world’s major economies (including the
United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, and
India), which have warned that “[t]he need for urgent action to address climate change is
now indisputable.”
• The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical
Union, and the American Meteorological Society, along with 15 other leading scientific
organizations, which have stated: “If we are to avoid the most severe impacts of climate
change, emissions of greenhouse gases must be dramatically reduced.”
• Thirteen federal departments and agencies, including NASA, the National Science
Foundation, and the Department of Defense, which reported in 2009 that global warming
is “unequivocal and primarily human-induced” and that “widespread climate-related
impacts are occurring now and are expected to increase.”
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has reported: “Warming
of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in
global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising
global average sea level.”
H.R. 910 is opposed by: American Lung Association, American Public Health
Association, American Thoracic Society; Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America;
Physicians for Social Responsibility; Trust for America’s Health; 1,882 doctors, nurses and other
medical professionals; retired high-ranking U.S. military officers; 2,505 scientists; Natural
Resources Defense Council; League of Conservation Voters; Center for Biological Diversity;
Environment America; Conservation Law Foundation; National Audubon Society; The
Wilderness Society; Earthjustice; U.S. Climate Action Network; Center for American Progress
Action Fund; American Rivers; Sierra Club; Defenders of Wildlife; Environmental Defense
Fund; and Union of Concerned Scientists, among others.
In addition, last year 120 public health associations stated their opposition to “any efforts
to weaken, delay or block the EPA from protecting the public’s health” from risks from climate
change, and 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences affirmed the threat from climate
change and called for action to reduce it.