For the umpteenth time, Congressional Republicans are trying to legislate away the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority and ability to enforce laws that are already on the books.
There's nothing surprising about that in itself, but one aspect of this latest assault on the Clean Air Act made me laugh out loud.
The bill would also delay final implementation of the rule until all legal challenges have been dismissed, a process which could take years. Two high-profile legal cases challenging the EPA climate rules are scheduled to be argued this week.
[Representative] Whitfield on Tuesday said the purpose of his bill is to prevent states from having to deal with the EPA’s “damaging overreach.”
Florida could be underwater by the time all legal challenges have been dismissed.
That would be legal challenges to clean air.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would apply the Clean Air Act to existing power plants and carbon dioxide emissions that cross state lines which would effectively include every single state. A number of Republican-controlled states and industry groups have filed lawsuits against the federal government because of it.
The bill sponsored by Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) has been named the "Ratepayer Protection Act" because it will presumably protect you, the utility customer, from the tyrannical powers of the federal government.
I think we all know who the bill is really intended to protect.