On Sept. 21 The Huffington Post published an article with the headline, “House Passes Sweeping Anti-Environmental Bill As Final Business Before Elections.”
The ‘Stop The War On Coal Act, H.R. 3409,’ which literally made me laugh out loud when I read the title, passed 233 to 175 (including the votes of 19 Democrats). The Huffington Post points out that there’s no chance it would move in the Senate and has been all but promised a presidential veto; however, House Republicans though it was important enough to make sure it got passed. What makes this so important? Is it just another ‘we shouldn’t limit how much companies can pollute, because that’s bad for the economy,’ or that Republicans really do hate the environment?
The bill is “aimed at blocking carbon pollution standards. Specifically, the package would eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean car standards, nullify the EPA’s mercury and air toxic standards, weaken the Clean Water Act and block efforts to reduce damage from coal mining.” Even though “the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that emissions reductions resulting from meeting these standards [that would be overturned by this bill] will prevent as many as 11,000 avoidable premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks annually.” So, again, why this bill? Why was this so important for Republicans to get passed before leaving to campaign full-time until the election?
The author of the bill, Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), said, “Let’s get Americans back to work and stop the administration’s war on coal.” Meanwhile, “GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been trying to cast Obama as an enemy of the coal industry. Romney released a pair of TV ads this week that shows coal industry workers worrying about their futures.”
Ok. Now I get it. They’re just using this bill to try to convince people that Obama and Democrats are not on the side of coal workers; that Obama isn’t trying to create jobs, because if he were he wouldn’t be trying to decrease the use of coal. Maybe they’ll even claim that it should be the right of the people to create as much pollution as they want.
Rather than work on policy that might actually help the people they represent they spent their last hours making sure a bill (that will never become law and would do great harm if it did become law) got passed in hopes of using this as a talking point for their campaigns.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/house-republicans-environment_n_1903647.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
