Cross posted from Article XI
You’re probably aware that the Republican Party in the House is attempting to pull a coup-d’état against the EPA and Interior Department, effectively reducing their budgets for fiscal year 2012 by…a lot.
Well, many if not all of the Democrats in the House aren’t having it, finally. That includes Jim Moran, the Environment Appropriations subpanel ranking member. The bill that the Republican House has rolled out is not hard to oppose, to be sure. It contains 38 policy riders that do a whole host of nasty things for environmental protection goals like placing a moratorium on the Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of new species under the Endangered Species Act. And the list goes on.
Rep. Moran put it simply, “We’re going to dissent.” Not exactly the kind of line that catches the headlines of front pages around the country but the Democrats in the House have made it clear, they won’t concede on this bill. The stakes for human and environmental health are just too high.
The argument behind the Republican Party’s additional dose of insanity is that the EPA and Interior Department stand to kill the economy with business-busting environmental regulations. Just how much these regulations will cost businesses across the country is uncertain, even if figures are bantered about. As is so often the case, however, what is left out of this debate is sometimes more important than what’s included.
For the moment, at least, Virginia should applaud its representative Jim Moran for taking a strong stand against the Republican House and their vision of an America as one large environmental wasteland. Maybe because of his actions, our children will have an environment worth saving, and so on down the generational line.
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