Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., on Thursday signed on as co-sponsors to a new resolution offered by Murkowski that would effectively veto the Environmental Protection Agency's formal declaration last year that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare.
The Senators want to use a congressional act to put a stop to the EPA's Carbon regulations:
Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she wanted to ensure the EPA could not "issue backdoor climate regulations under the Clean Air Act," a tactic she called "our worst option for reducing the emissions blamed for climate change."
Murkowski and other critics of what they call the EPA's "command-and-control approach" to regulating greenhouse gases say it is a blunt tool for cutting carbon dioxide emissions that would not apply across all sectors of the U.S. economy and cannot be tailored for different regions.
Murkowski said she wanted more time before EPA regulations kicked in -- to allow for Congress to draft and pass its own broad climate change and energy legislation. But though the House passed such a measure last year, hopes are dimming on Capitol Hill for swift passage of any similar bill in the Senate this spring.
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