House Panel Approves Anti-EPA Measure

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday in favor of a bill that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse has emissions.

The measure was approved by lawmakers on the Energy and Power subcommittee, and will now head to the full committee for a vote sometime next week. Should it pass — and it is expected to — it will move to the House floor “in the next couple of weeks,” according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Supporters, mostly Republicans, say the legislation will protect jobs and will prevent the EPA from overreaching. Opponents, meanwhile, say that its principles are based on phony science, and argue that it will lead to heightened air pollution.

“In short it is anti-science, a know-nothing, do-nothing approach to the most challenging environmental problem of our time,” said Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the full committee.

Language in the bill, which was co-authored by the chairmen of both the full committee and the subcommittee, Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), would also overturn a previous EPA finding that greenhouse gases — such as carbon dioxide — pose threats to the public’s health.

While the House bill enjoys broad backing, including support from three Democrats, a companion bill offered by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) in the Senate is expected to face more of a challenge. Other then Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), no Democrats in the upper chamber have expressed interest in voting for the bill.

“Frankly, it is a sad state of affairs that in America, in the year 2011, we are even debating this issue,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said during a press conference on Thursday. “Why are we discussing whether or not the American people are entitled to breathe clean air and drink clean water?”

Anna Cameron contributed to this story.