{"id":21941,"date":"2014-11-20T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=21941"},"modified":"2014-11-20T09:54:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T15:54:43","slug":"epa-in-the-crosshairs-as-oklahomas-inhofe-gains-sway-over-climate-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/11\/20\/epa-in-the-crosshairs-as-oklahomas-inhofe-gains-sway-over-climate-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA In the Crosshairs as Oklahoma’s Inhofe Gains Sway Over Climate Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oklahoma<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Revkin \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

Oklahoma U.S. Senator James Inhofe at an impromptu news conference during climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The Republican wave that put the party back in full control of Congress also put Oklahoma U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe back in charge of the Senate committee<\/a> that oversees the country\u2019s environmental policies.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Political Climate Change<\/h4>

The political shift in Washington comes at time when \u2014 from President Barack Obama\u2019s Clean Power Plan<\/a> to enforcement of the Regional Haze Rule that\u2019s riled Oklahoma officials<\/a> \u2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a lot of things in the air.<\/p>

Election night was a rough one in general for the left, but some of the tears spilled on Election Day were over the specific issue of climate change, and what a fully Republican-controlled Congress might do to thwart President Obama\u2019s environmental efforts.<\/p>

From MSNBC\u2019s Alex Wagner<\/a>:<\/p>\n

That is because when voters elected Republicans to a majority of both chambers of Congress, they effectively put Oklahoma Senator and longtime climate change denier James Inhofe in charge of the Senate\u2019s climate policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>

And it\u2019s statements like this, which Inhofe made to StateImpact in a recent interview, that worry those concerned about climate change:<\/p>

\u201cOur air is the cleanest it\u2019s ever been. And now they\u2019re pushing for these regulations, but the thing is, it\u2019s not something you can look at cost\/benefit of … Our air is already clean,\u201d Inhofe says.<\/p>\n

Derailing With Hearings and Riders<\/h4>

The EPA has the power to make environmental rules, so what, if anything, can Inhofe do to derail Obama\u2019s plan to cut carbon emissions at coal plants, or the regional haze rule that\u2019s meant to clear the air at national parks for example?<\/p>

\u201cWell, there are a lot of different things they can try. It\u2019s unclear how successful they\u2019ll be,\u201d says Jack Lienke with the Institute for Policy Integrity<\/a> at the New York University School of Law.<\/p>

Lienke says there are four ways Congress can obstruct EPA rules.<\/p>

\u201cOne thing that Senator Inhofe \u2014 as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee in the Senate \u2014 and that other Republican leaders will get is oversight authority,\u201d Lienke says. \u201cSo this is the ability to hold hearings, to issue document requests, to call witnesses.\u201d<\/p>

That won\u2019t impact the EPA rules themselves, but burying the agency in hearings can slow it down and shine a spotlight on its activities. Lienke expects that tactic to be used a lot.<\/p>

Overturning an existing rule, like regional haze or the mercury and air toxics standards, is a second option. But to do that, Congress would have to do something it has recently seemed incapable of doing: actually pass legislation.<\/p>\n

\"Oklahoma<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma Gas & Electric's coal-fired Sooner Plant in Red Rock, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The problem is the filibuster. Inhofe would need 60 votes in the Senate to end debate and force a vote. The third option is what\u2019s called the Congressional Review Act<\/a>, which allows Congress to nix a new rule within two months of it being finalized. Inhofe says that\u2019s the best option for stopping newly finalized rules, like the carbon emission limits<\/a> coming in June 2015.<\/p>

\u201cI will be introducing it on that day with 30 co-sponsors \u2014 you have to have 30 senators join you and I already have that,\u201d Inhofe says. \u201cThen it will go to just a straight up or down majority vote, not a supermajority, just 51 votes in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>

That gets Inhofe around the filibuster, but then there\u2019s President Obama\u2019s veto power, which he\u2019d likely use to protect the cornerstone of his administration\u2019s climate change policy. But, after talking to Democrats, Inhofe thinks he can get around that obstacle, too.<\/p>

“I went back this week and talked to a bunch of them who lost their jobs,\u201d Inhofe says. \u201cThey all, to the last one, blame Obama. So a lot of these guys that are coming … into cycle where they have to run for re-election in 2016, they\u2019re going to be racing to override vetoes to separate themselves from the president.\u201d<\/p>

The final option would be to attach amendments to big, important spending bills that block funding for enforcement of EPA rules. Inhofe says he supports that effort, but only to a point. Right now he\u2019s not willing to shut down the government over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lienke says there are four ways Congress can obstruct EPA rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[553,549,499,316,552,545],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21941"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21964,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21941\/revisions\/21964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}