SALON

Friday, Aug 5, 2011 5:06 PM UTC

Is this the most anti-environment House in history?

A review of votes in the 112th Congress shows a GOP at war with environmental protections

By

Topics: Environment, War Room, U.S. House of Representatives,

Is this the most anti-environment House in history?A rider attached to the appropriation bill that funds the EPA would end the moratorium on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon which could contaminate the Colorado River

This year alone, the anti-environment side has prevailed more than 100 votes in the House of Representatives. That’s the claim of two liberal Democratic lawmakers, who have issued a report documenting 110 instances since January in which bills intended to strengthen environmental protection have been blocked or otherwise undermined in the Republican-controlled House.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) have released a fact sheet (available in full here) detailing all of the votes, which include attempts to deny that climate change is occurring; votes to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating carbon emissions from power plants and oil refineries; and votes to block EPA from regulating carbon emissions from motor vehicles, which also reduces oil imports. 28 votes were to block actions to prevent air and water pollution and 27 were “to undermine protection for public lands and coastal areas.”

The partisan split in voting will come as little surprise: 97 percent of Republicans voted against environment protections, while 84 percent of Democrats voted for the pro-environment position.

“The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants, oil refineries and factories,” said Waxman, a ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee. “This is the most anti-environment House of Representatives in history.”

Meanwhile, congressional summer recess has stalled an ongoing debate over the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, which some have called “the worst assault on clean air and water in history.” As a Friday LA Times editorial notes, the appropriations bill has been loaded up with “riders” (controversial provisions tacked onto bills, often because they wouldn’t pass on their own) “that would encourage deadly pollution of the air and water, set back efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, among other things.”

Markey and Waxman count 39 such anti-environment riders in the bill, which will be debated again after August recess. If it passes — as a stand alone bill or alongside other appropriations bills — Waxman, Markey and co. will have all the more ground from which to call this the most anti-environment House in history.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 21 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations