Pelosi Statement on Legislation Addressing Energy Independence and Global Warming:
“Any legislation that comes to the House floor must increase our energy independence, reduce global warming, invest in new technologies to achieve these goals and create good jobs in America.”Any proposal that affects California’s landmark efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or eliminate the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions will not have my support.”
We agree! More from E&E Daily (subs. reqd.):
Pelosi to oppose Energy and Commerce panel’s provision on state regulationsAlex Kaplun, E&E Daily reporter
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday said she would oppose any legislation that would bar California from setting its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles.
“Any proposal that affects California’s landmark efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or eliminate the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions will not have my support,” Pelosi said in a brief statement yesterday evening.
Her statement was an apparent warning shot at a recent proposal released by top Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee and further highlights differences between Pelosi and the committee’s leadership — namely, Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.).
Pelosi’s statement comes one day after a provision found in a draft energy bill released by Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Boucher raised a minor furor among environmentalists and officials from states that have adopted California’s GHG regulations.
Boucher’s bill includes a provision that would amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the EPA administrator from granting waivers to states on automobile emission rules if “such standards are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
California and several other states are embroiled in a long-running legal and political battle with the auto industry over whether states have the right to set their own policies concerning vehicle GHG emissions.
Moreover, opponents of the bill say the legislation could negate the recent Massachusetts v. EPA decision that gave EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Several senior committee members have already said they had concerns about the language and would try to strip it out of the bill when it reaches markup later this month. “We look forward to preserving that which the Supreme Court just granted us,” committee member Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) said yesterday.
Yet Dingell — chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee — issued a statement in apparent defense of the Boucher draft.
“These issues will be addressed when we establish an economy-wide system for regulating greenhouse gas emissions,” Dingell wrote in a one-paragraph statement released last night. “The draft moves us closer to this goal. It strengthens fuel economy standards, establishes a federal low carbon fuel standard, requires automakers to report their carbon footprint and clarifies three conflicting regulations of fuel economy.”