January 28, 2011 08:27 PM UTC

Gardner Cosponsors EPA Hogtie - H.R. 97 Free Industry Act

• 6 Comments
• by: Gypsy Chief

Photo Credit: DOE/NREL. The picture shows smoggy haze near Denver, CO.

Thanks to our friends at Alternet for a story about H.R. 97. That legislation would declare various gasses not to be ‘air pollutants’ so EPA couldn’t regulate them.

Introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN7]

Free Industry Act – Amends the Clean Air Act to: (1) exclude from the definition of the term “air pollutant” carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, or sulfur hexafluoride; and (2) declare that nothing in the Act shall be treated as authorizing or requiring the regulation of climate change or global warming.

The story said that H.R. 97 is just one of several bills designed to limit the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency. A search for more information led to Govtrack.us a tool to find the status of pending legislation. Govtrack.us has a link to PopVox so that you can express your support or opposition to that bill. You enter your name and address. The application looks up your legislator and prepares a short message. Depending on what action you take, you are then offered related legislation to review. That is how I found the Ensuring Affordable Energy Act. Here is more information. Ensuring Affordable Energy Act

Introduced by Rep. Ted Poe [R-TX2]

Congressional Research Service Bill Summary

Ensuring Affordable Energy Act – Prohibits any funds appropriated or otherwise available for the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from being used to implement or enforce: (1) a cap-and-trade program; or (2) any statutory or regulatory requirement pertaining to emissions of one or more greenhouse gases from stationary sources that is issued or becomes applicable or effective after January 1, 2011. Defines: (1) “cap-and-trade program” as any regulatory program established after the date of enactment of this Act that provides for the sale, auction, or other distribution of a limited amount of allowances that permit the emission of one or more greenhouse gases; and (2) “greenhouse gas” to include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, or any other designated anthropogenic gas.

Cory Gardner Cosponsors H.R. 97

As of this writing H.R. 97 has 113 cosponsors including Cory Gardner. H.R. 153 has 42 cosponsors. Congressman Gardner not one of them. Govtrack.us offers widgets for bloggers. Since our local Congressman is trying to hogtie the EPA I put in a widget to keep readers up to date. The Alternet story notes that sulfur hexafluoride [SF6] is a very toxic greenhouse gas.