John Gizzi:
Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma last week launched a counteroffensive against the latest round of regulatory rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, charging that President Barack Obama is “trying to do through regulation what he couldn’t do through law.”
“The crown jewel of the administration’s overregulation is ‘cap and trade,'” Inhofe told reporters, referring to the mandatory cap on CO2 emissions long supported by environmentalists to curb what they warn will be global warming.
In moving against regulations designed to bring about the cap and trade measures that have never been voted on by Congress, Inhofe introduced a bill to prohibit the EPA administrator from issuing a final rule until the agency conducts an economic analysis as required under the Clean Air Act.
Under his bill, Inhofe explained, “you cannot issue any new regulations unless you list just what impact they will have on jobs and the economy.”
Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Senate environment committee, was the first member of Congress to speak out against the concept of global warming and wrote a controversial book on it, “The Greatest Hoax, How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.” His criticism was given greater public hearing and support after Climategate, the 2009 hacking of computers at the University of East Anglia that seemed to show that many scientists had exaggerated data dealing with global warming.
Noting that Section 321(a) of the Clean Air Act requires an analysis of the economic impact of any regulation, the senator said his bill would put teeth into the section.
Adding further “bite” to his bill, Inhofe revealed that he plans to file a Congressional Review Act on any major regulation from the EPA issued by the administration. Filing a CRA requires Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, to permit an up-or-down vote in the Senate on whether to overturn that regulation.
Under Senate rules, the signatures of 30 senators are required to file the CRA. Inhofe voiced confidence he can get the signatures with ease, and pointed out that when he offered his legislation to the Senate Republican Steering Committee, “it had no trouble getting 29 co-sponsors.”
