WASHINGTON, D.C. – Minnesota’s 7th District Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson laid down a hard line this morning on the developing climate change policy being promoted by the Obama administration.
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee indicated that he strongly disagreed with the administration’s biofuels analysis and, therefore, likely would oppose a climate-change bill, according to Iowa’s Des Moines Register.
The Register quoted Peterson at a hearing on biofuels policy this morning saying:
“The only way I would consider any kind of climate-change bill is if it was ironclad that these agencies don’t have authority to do any kind of rulemaking whatsoever,” Peterson said.
While legislative discussions on climate change are just beginning to ramp up in Congress, Peterson’s early stand underlines the challenges facing the administration as it attempts to woo lawmakers in general, and Blue Dog and Midwestern Democrats, specifically.
While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid maintains public optimism about its passage, and House Minority Leader John Boehner calls it a “declaration of war on the Midwest,” Obama Administration EPA head Lisa Jackson tells Congress that she would “prefer” that the Federal legislature enact the crime against humanity known as carbon emission cap-and-trade.
The green/brown fascist movement does not intend to be deterred, however, if Congress does not do so.
As National Public Radio’s ‘All Things Considered’ reported April 29, “Leslie Carothers, the president of the Washington think-tank Environmental Law Institute, says the administration can always go around Congress. “Lisa Jackson, the new head of EPA has said, `You know, hey, if Congress chooses not to go forward with this [cap-and-trade], we will go forward under the Clean Air Act and use our authority under that statute.’ In fact, EPA has announced that it has the legal authority to do that.”
And, in fact, the EPA already runs several cap-and-trade programs, such as the Acid Rain Program, all of which have been approved by Congress as amendments to the Clean Air Act.
No Lyndon LaRouche links, Glenn? It is true however that we “Green/Brown Fascists” do not need cap and trade legislation to enact cap and trade. Peterson’s logic is very strange here. Why would Congress amend the Clean Air Act to explicitly limit the EPA’s jurisdiction over greenhouse gas emissions in order to get Colin Peterson’s vote for a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions?