Murkowski Takes Issue With Obama Over Emissions Policy

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (I-Alaska) today criticized President Obama’s steady support for allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions in 2011.

Murkowski, a Republican-turned-Independent who will likely serve a second term after launching a write-in campaign against Joe Miller, the man who defeated her in the GOP primary, said Obama should ask the Senate to vote on a bill she helped pass out of the Committee on Energy last year aimed at giving the U.S. energy independence without placing restrictions on emissions.

“There are a great number of things we can do to responsibly reduce our carbon emissions without burdening our economy with an unworkable cap-and-trade scheme or command-and-control regulation by the EPA,” Murkowski said. “If the president wants to start with the work the Energy Committee has already done, I would be happy to work with him. But I also believe we must first preempt the EPA from meddling in the work of Congress when it comes to setting climate policies.”

During a post-election news conference at the White House on Wednesday, the President defended a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that gave the EPA authority under the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gases.

“The EPA is under a court order that says greenhouse gases are a pollutant that fall under their jurisdiction…I think what they want to do is make sure that the issue’s being dealt with.”

However, Obama might have experienced a slight setback on Thursday when the head of EPA’s policy office, Lisa Heinzerling, announced that she was stepping down to return to her teaching position at Georgetown University. Heinzerling, an ardent proponent of regulating greenhouse emissions, was once described by Obama’s top energy advisor, Carol Browner, as being the “farthest left” of anyone in the administration on the issue of climate change.