Repower America: A Budget Blow to Our Climate?

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://repoweramerica.org/blog/a-budget-blow-to-our-climate/

A Budget Blow to Our Climate?

Posted on February 22, 2011

By Christina Simeone, Policy Director

There’s some bad news out of Washington for our planet. Some members of Congress want to take away a massive amount of funding from efforts to reduce pollution and help solve the climate crisis. So here’s a quick guide to what is going on:

The House of Representatives passed a bill over the weekend that would fund government operations through September 30, 2011. This bill does several things. Not only would it make deep cuts in programs that promote clean energy and reduce air pollution — but it would actively prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from taking action to address climate change.

Specifically, the House funding proposal prohibits the EPA from spending any money on limiting greenhouse gas pollution from sources like power plants, factories and refineries. This means the EPA’s first ever-attempt to reduce heat-trapping emissions from these sources, which took effect in January, would be suspended — and the EPA would have to forego the additional regulations for these sources that are planned for the future.

The cost of administering these greenhouse gas rules would be tiny compared to the EPA’s overall budget, so this would not yield significant cost savings. Yet by cutting off funding, Congress would block our federal efforts to reduce the pollution that is changing our climate.

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