Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Tuesday night blamed Republicans for failing to act on policies that he said would help confront climate change.
“The reason we are not doing more is because of the Republican Party and all of the people in Congress who are stopping us from doing this,” the Nevada Democrat said at a Washington event hosted by the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. “We have to call them out.”
Congress has stalled on passing legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions following the collapse of a sweeping cap-and-trade bill in 2010. The bill had passed the House but foundered in the upper chamber.
President Obama has resorted to using executive authority to clamp down on emitters. Chief among them is a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule that would limit carbon emissions from power plants, which is due for finalization this summer.
Republicans, though, have criticized the president for what they say amounts to an end-around Congress on the power plant rule, though the administration contends the Clean Air Act directs it to regulate carbon emissions.
GOP lawmakers are trying to handcuff the rule and a number of other regulations that they say are examples of executive overreach.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who will likely take over as caucus leader once Reid retires after 2016, said Democrats would block GOP attempts to roll back regulations.
“I say to my Republican friends, as long as Reid is leader and Schumer is in the leadership, we will never let them repeal those EPA standards,” Schumer said at the event.
