Senators Seek to Strip Regulation Rights from Obama's EPA

Last year, on the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Obama revealed a way that he could sidestep Congress and use the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gasses. Today, Senate Republicans are moving to block Obama and strip the EPA of this right indefinitely.

The leader of this proposal, Senator Lisa Murkowski, is expected to put forward a vote barring the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. This move, described as "highly political" by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who believes that this bill could potentially embarrass the president and destroy cap and trade's chances in the Senate.

Murkowski, who says she believes the planet is warming for natural reasons, is intent on introducing the measure sometime this week. The EPA's regulation of greenhouse gasses, which she wishes to block, has been decried on both sides of the aisle, with Senator John Kerry calling it a "blunt object" that would be a disservice to the American people. Murkowski's office is critical of the president's use of the EPA finding to push cap and trade through the Senate. "The whole approach has been the administration threatening Congress that if you don't pass bad legislation, we are going to pass worse regulation," said a representative from her office. "What this vote means is that you can't use this to blackmail Congress to pass bad legislation."

In its present form, Senator Murkowski is not expected to endorse cap and trade. "She supports doing something to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions but the prerequisite is that it must not harm the economy and it must lead to substantial reductions," said her spokesperson. "The bill we have seen so far does none of that."

Despite expected support from both Republicans and Democrats, political analysts say the measure won't get the supermajority needed to overcome a virtually guaranteed Obama veto.