John Conyers Jr. [MI-13th, Judiciary Ranking Member] who rescued the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks, did a splendid job sounding the alarm on H. R. 2834 —(its current title): To enact certain laws relating to the environment as title 55, United States Code, ‘‘Environment’’.
It was in a full committee hearing on Oct. 27, 2015 (video here fast forward to 0:54:57) at which two strictly Partisan votes (here and here) rammed the bill sponsored by Tom Marino [PA-10th, Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security, Judiciary] out of Committee and back onto the House floor where it awaits action.
This monster bill will establish a unified body of “Environmental Law” within the U.S. Code which sounds like a wonderful idea to consolidate myriad Public Laws that have been passed, amended, and debated endlessly over the past 45 years or more.
However, this bill and its sharp departure from normal Committee processes repeals many of those established, enduring, proven, environmental protections and restructures others to the benefit of broader political considerations rather than to impact pending and/or potential legal disputes, as Representative Conyers was sorry to have to say.
Mr. Conyers cited many other reasons to avoid rushing into passage of this legislation as seen in the hearing video (spoiler alert: get a good sound system or earphones for this really crumby sound quality Judiciary Committee obstruction of transparency). Conyers begins his opening statement at video 0:49:00
“This bill is a blatant effort by polluters and their allies to bias current litigation against the Clean Power Plan” Conyers said. He mentioned National Resources Defense Council and others have cautioned us all of this ploy. (See: NRDC video defending Clean Power Plan here. See: Clean Power: the Case for Carbon Pollution Limits, an NRDC Resource Report of July, 2015. and See: The Clean Power Plan Resource Book.)
Similarly, Media Matters has shone light on the analysis written by Denise Robbins which determined:
“The Wall Street Journal's opinion page has been serving as a mouthpiece for the fossil fuel industry's attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan, which will set limits on carbon pollution from power plants. Nearly every WSJ op-ed about the proposed rule since it was released on June 2, 2014 has been written by people with ties to the energy industry -- and every single one has attacked it.” …….. Read More ……..
Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) termed the Clean Power Plan A Climate Game Changer in their analysis driven by the USC founding vision (in 1969) of “scientific research directed away from military technologies and toward solving pressing environmental and social problems” in pursuit of “Science for a Healthy Planet and a Safer World”.
To support and protect the EPA, President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and the well being of our common home environment, we must defeat this bill, H. R. 2834 —(its current title): To enact certain laws relating to the environment as title 55, United States Code, ‘‘Environment’’before it even receives floor action in either House or Senate by making sure it dies on the calendar.