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Columbus
Dispatch...
Brown among senators
voting against EPA curbs
Sunday, April 10, 2011
With the vote of Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Senate last week turned back
efforts by conservative lawmakers to prohibit the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency from issuing regulations to restrict the emissions of
greenhouse gases thought by some to cause global warming.
The Ohio Democrat joined 49 other senators in opposing the measure,
which was backed by businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The measure needed 60 votes to pass.
Although the House last week approved a similar bill, the Senate vote
makes clear that environmentalists have prevailed this year.
Because of a 2007 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the EPA has the
power under the 1970 Clean Air Act to regulate the emissions of
greenhouse gases.
The Obama administration intends to issue regulations, which industries
argue would raise utility rates and cost jobs.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, voted for the bill, saying he was “proud to
vote for the one amendment that would have truly protected Ohio
manufacturing and jobs from burdensome EPA regulations.”
Brown backed a more-modest measure championed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow,
D-Mich., that would have delayed enforcement of new EPA rules by two
years but would permit the EPA to continue planning on issuing the
rules. That amendment was rejected.
Meghan Dubyak, a Brown spokeswoman, said he “introduced a common-sense
alternative that would delay the enforcement of new rules for two years
while still allowing EPA to continue its planning and
information-gathering and allowing the manufacturing industry to gear
up for the clean-energy supply chain and to reduce carbon emissions.”
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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