Republican lawmakers aim to block the Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding that would regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top GOP member of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is leading the charge by attempting to rally support behind a joint resolution of disapproval, Reuters reports.
If successful, the resolution would repeal the EPA's endangerment finding. Murkowski said that Congress, not the EPA, has the right to determine whether greenhouse gases should be regulated.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has pushed for bipartisan support of a cap-and-trade bill, attended Murkowski's unveiling of the resolution, reports CQPolitics. Graham has said that he would support cap-and-trade if the government also opened up more offshore drilling for fossil fuels.
Graham went so far as to co-write a guest column in the New York Times with Sen. John Kerry (D.- Mass.), that said they “refuse to accept the argument that the United States cannot lead the world in addressing global climate change.”
However, the resolution requires approval of both chambers and President Obama, so it is unlikely that it would have any chance of changing the EPA's course of action.
Nonetheless, Murkowski is using the resolution as a soapbox to discuss potentially negative effects on the U.S. business community from the EPA regulations.
See video of Murkowski's remarks below.
