Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

[ScienceRocks]

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

The top Republican in the Senate is looking at unprecedented legislative tactics to try to stop the EPA from regulating carbon pollution from coal plants.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor on Thursday (video here) to tell his colleagues about a letter he had just written to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The letter asks if McConnell and 41 Republican cosponsors can use the Congressional Review Act to reverse a proposed regulation — a rule that is not final — setting carbon standards for new power plants.

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress to repeal a final rule issued by the Executive Branch within 60 legislative days of being published in the Federal Register. The proposed rule on carbon standards was published in the Federal Register last week. No senator has filed a CRA challenge to a rule that is not yet final. And even for finalized rules, the CRA has only succeeded once since its creation in 1996.

“We believe the EPA regulation in question clearly meets the definition for Congressional Review under this statute,” McConnell argued on the Senate floor. Essentially he claims that coal plant construction that starts after the proposed rule is published would be liable under the standard — this is what the GAO will have to consider. Chuck Young, Managing Director of Public Affairs at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told Climate Progress that the agency had received the request. What happens next is that it will go through the same process that all Congressional requests go through before any decisions get made — that process takes a “couple weeks.”

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules | ThinkProgress

 

[bripat9643]

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

The top Republican in the Senate is looking at unprecedented legislative tactics to try to stop the EPA from regulating carbon pollution from coal plants.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor on Thursday (video here) to tell his colleagues about a letter he had just written to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The letter asks if McConnell and 41 Republican cosponsors can use the Congressional Review Act to reverse a proposed regulation — a rule that is not final — setting carbon standards for new power plants.

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress to repeal a final rule issued by the Executive Branch within 60 legislative days of being published in the Federal Register. The proposed rule on carbon standards was published in the Federal Register last week. No senator has filed a CRA challenge to a rule that is not yet final. And even for finalized rules, the CRA has only succeeded once since its creation in 1996.

“We believe the EPA regulation in question clearly meets the definition for Congressional Review under this statute,” McConnell argued on the Senate floor. Essentially he claims that coal plant construction that starts after the proposed rule is published would be liable under the standard — this is what the GAO will have to consider. Chuck Young, Managing Director of Public Affairs at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told Climate Progress that the agency had received the request. What happens next is that it will go through the same process that all Congressional requests go through before any decisions get made — that process takes a “couple weeks.”

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules | ThinkProgress

So? Regulating CO2 is unprecedented. Go Mitch!

 

[TheOldSchool]

Go Mitch!

Said the first repub in years

 

[HelenaHandbag]

What is unprecedented is a bureaucracy creating law out of thin air through regulatory fiat.

Strange that ThinkProgress has nothing to say about that.

 

[007]

What is unprecedented is a bureaucracy creating law out of thin air through regulatory fiat.

Strange that ThinkProgress has nothing to say about that.

Or dingy harry invoking the nuclear option, first time in the history of the senate so they can ram through their agenda and appointments with total disregard to republicans.

More double standards and hypocrisy from the radical left.

 

[Old Rocks]

An El Nino summer looks to be in the works. May change many minds.

 

[RGR]

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

About time someone figured out where the real power of bureaucracy lies. Carbon pollution is what comes out of every living humans mouth, talk about the perfect angle for eco-fascists.

 

[whitehall]

You almost gotta laugh. What Mitch McConnell is doing is certainly precedented and legitimate. Why would lefties consider it "unprecendented"?

 

[Old Rocks]

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

About time someone figured out where the real power of bureaucracy lies. Carbon pollution is what comes out of every living humans mouth, talk about the perfect angle for eco-fascists.

Now that is a truly dumb statement. It is the addition of previously sequestered carbon that is increasing the amount of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere. Animals, plants, and the ocean-atmosphere cycle do not change the amount that much until other factors, such as the Milankovic Cycles, come into play.

 

[flacaltenn]

An El Nino summer looks to be in the works. May change many minds.

Oh yes Goldirocks.. Because Global warming NEEDS natural cycles to disguise it and accentuate it.. Otherwise, we might forget it was there...