Dan Coats: “I thank the Senator from Louisiana for arranging the opportunity for me to speak. I intended to do this in morning…”

“I thank the Senator from Louisiana for arranging the opportunity for me to speak. I intended to do this in morning business, but that time was running out, so she graciously arranged time for me to speak as we took the bill back up. Amendment No. 183 Mr. President, I wish to speak in support of the McConnell amendment that would prohibit the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. This is nothing more than a backdoor energy tax that should be the purview of Congress to enact or not enact and not the responsibility or the authority given to the EPA. The McConnell amendment, which is essentially the amendment language that was provided by Senator Inhofe and Senator Vitter, is patterned after the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which I have cosponsored, along with a bipartisan group of nearly 43 Senators. An identical bill was passed recently on a bipartisan basis by a House committee. There is a growing consensus in Congress and across the country that Washington bureaucrats cannot be and should not be setting our Nation's policy on climate change. The McConnell amendment would make it clear that it is the Congress and not the Environmental Protection Agency that ought to be squarely in the driver's seat with regard to energy and climate policy. It has become clear that the administration's cap-and-trade bill has had no chance of passing the Senate--again, because of bipartisan opposition.…”