Friday, January 15, 2010

Will Webb Join Effort to Gut Clean Air Act?

Could Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) join the efforts of polluter lobbyists & Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to gut the Clean Air Act's protections against carbon pollution? It's possible, according to Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard:
Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski has gained co-sponsorship for her effort to block the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide from at least one Democrat, her office confirmed Friday evening.

Spokesman Robert Dillon said that one Democrat has signed on, though he was not able to confirm the identity of the Democrat. There are, however, plenty of ideas about who this Democratic cosponsor may be. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), all previously on record voicing concerns about carbon regulation, have all been floated as possible sign-ons. We've put in inquiries at all those offices and will update as more information becomes available.
Webb has already declared his discomfort with comprehensive clean energy & climate legislation. But would he really go one step further and gut the Clean Air Act's Congressionally-approved, Supreme Court-validated protections? Such a move would be a free license to massive emitters to pollute as much as they want.

While we've had an unusually cold winter so far in the U.S., other parts of the world have been unusually warm. Temperatures have been a startling 10-15 degrees above normal in the Artic.

Webb wrote in "What It Means To Be A Leader" that "you and your grandchildren will be the inheritors of both our successes and flaws." Unless Sen. Webb wakes up soon, future generations could be paying for his apparent indifference to our climate crisis.

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