Action Alert: Stop Murkowski!

Credo Action sent me this one:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is launching a potentially devastating attack on the Clean Air Act. Majority Leader Harry Reid has granted her a vote for January 20 that would block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants and other polluters in 2010.

The vote -- on an amendment to a must-pass bill to lift the debt ceiling -- will remove the EPA's enforcement funding and power so big polluters like the coal industry can ignore the Clean Air Act.

You think this would be easy to stop, but the vote is predicted to be close with many Democrats considering voting for the bill. This attack is a rerun of the successful efforts by Newt Gingrich to hamstring the Clinton EPA in the 90s.

 

"Congress must not block the Clean Air Act's limits on global warming pollution."

 

Republican and Democratic senators alike need to hear from you. The coal industry has been working furiously to close deals with senators across the political spectrum, including those who say they want to protect the environment. We cannot underestimate the Senate's vulnerability to cynical attempts to handcuff the EPA.

The vote is expected to be close and we cannot take victory for granted.

 

Big Energy Lobbyists helped write this bill.  According to McClatchy DC:

Two lobbyists had a hand in writing language proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski that could curtail the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases.

Their involvement, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, came at the request of a staffer on the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, where the Alaska senator is the top Republican. Both of the lobbyists, Jeff Holmstead and Roger Martella Jr., represent a number of high-profile energy clients. Both had top positions in the EPA during the Bush administration.

Murkowski has led the charge against the EPA's role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying she has concerns about an executive branch agency, rather than Congress, writing such regulations. Her original amendment would have been attached to a spending bill and it would have prohibited the EPA for one year from spending any money on developing regulations for greenhouse gases…

We all know what the Bush/GOP appointees in the EPA did to gut that agency.  I’m sure that their input is bad for everyone except the energy executives.

You can sign this petition at Credo Action.  I did.