GOP to probe Obama’s climate plans

House Republicans have scheduled their first big hearing on President Obama’s sweeping second-term climate change agenda.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has invited officials from 13 agencies to a Sept. 18 hearing on the executive actions Obama unveiled in late June.

{mosads}Most of Obama’s agenda doesn’t require approval from Capitol Hill, but the hearing gives Republicans a platform to attack pieces that they argue will burden the economy.

Departments invited include the Environmental Protection Agency, which is carrying out a far-reaching piece of Obama’s plan: Writing carbon emissions standards for power plants.

“At the hearing, we seek to hear from relevant federal agencies about U.S. climate change policies and the administration’s second term climate agenda, and to obtain fuller information regarding the federal government’s past, current, and planned domestic and international activities, climate research programs, initiatives, and new regulatory requirements,” wrote Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee that’s hosting the session, in a letter to various agencies.

Obama’s plan includes proposals to make international trade more climate-friendly, new efforts to make communities more “resilient” to climate changes, stepped-up Energy Department appliance standards, and much more.

So Republicans are casting a wide net in their search for witnesses. Here’s the list of agencies that Whitfield invited to the hearing:

• The Environmental Protection Agency
• The Department of Energy
• The Department of Health and Human Services
• The Department of Agriculture
• The Department of the Interior
• The Department of Transportation
• The Department of Defense
• The Department of State
• The U.S. Agency for International Development
• The Export-Import Bank of the U.S.
• The Office of Science and Technology
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration