Senate votes to strike down Obama’s climate rules

The Senate voted Tuesday to block a pair of regulations representing the central pillars of President Obama’s climate change initiative. The votes approving resolutions under the Congressional Review Act come less than two weeks before Obama and other world leaders meet in Paris to agree to a worldwide pact to fight global warming. The votes are symbolic, since Obama would veto the resolutions and supporters do not have the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override the vetoes. Senators voted 52-46 to stop the carbon dioxide limits for existing power plants, which mandate a 32 percent cut in the power sector’s carbon by 2030. The to block the related carbon rule for newly built power plants pass by the same vote. Together, the regulations are the biggest part of Obama’s pledge going into the talks to cut the United States’ greenhouse gases 26 percent to 28 percent. Obama pledged to veto the Senate’s measures. But Republicans said it is nonetheless important to take a stand against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...more

Symbolic? Yes, politically timed before the Paris conference.  If the Republicans R-E-A-L-L-Y wanted to stop these regs, they would insert this language in the appropriations bill.  The public needs to ask why they aren't doing something that is effective, rather than just symbolic.