Murkowski Resolution To Stop EPA Fails On Party-Line Vote
The Senate has voted 47-53 to reject a resolution introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (S.J. Res. 26) to block EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. Every Senate Republican, and six Democrats, supported the Resolution, which would have effectively killed EPA's efforts to promulgate and implement its new GHG regulations. The Obama Administration, supported by environmentalists and business who stand to profit from carbon trading and carbon controls, lobbied hard to defeat the Resolution to preserve EPA's power and support its aggressive regulatory agenda and to increase the pressure on Congress to pass a cap and trade bill.
You should expect to see the following: (1) The EPA's aggressive regulations will be a major campaign issue during the upcoming Congressional elections. The opponents' ad message may likely be "unelected bureaucrats are killing jobs and crippling the economy without improving the environment". (2) More pressure from the Administration on one or two wavering Republicans to break a potential filibuster and thus to pass cap and trade. The message will be cap and trade, plus the other incentives in Kerry-Lieberman, are the last best chance "to save the economy from EPA."
