House Dems filibuster GOP’s ‘anti-environment’ bill

Others said the bill, which cuts Interior Department, EPA and other spending by an overall 7 percent, said the bill reveals Republicans to be anti-environment.

“This is the most anti-environmental House in history,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). “The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants and oil refineries and factories.”

“This bill, H.R. 2584, is a terrible bill,” said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.). “It’s a terrible bill for our country and it represents an assault on our environment.”

Republicans argued Monday that everything needs to be cut, and that even the 18 percent cut to the EPA is justified in light of the huge spending increases it received in 2009. They also argued that EPA overreach is killing jobs and creating uncertainty among companies.

Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) argued that the EPA even regulates when companies can say they are selling a “green” product.

“When I was growing up, green was a color,” he said, holding up a green folder. “This folder was green. Not anymore. If I can’t demonstrate that this folder has something to do with livability and sustainability, I am misleading the people that are watching this program.”

LaTourette mocked this level of regulation further by wondering how the EPA might try to regulate the product named Miracle-Gro.

“How is the EPA going to be able to certify, when I put that Miracle-Gro on that tomato plant, that a miracle has occurred?” he asked. “You’re going to put a tremendous burden on the Vatican. All these little old ladies are going to be at the airport, flying over to Rome to talk to the College of Cardinals and say, ‘did a miracle occur?’ “