One person undoubtedly taking note of the president’s “principles” on climate change is Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. He is reportedly working on his own weak, coal industry-friendly climate amendment to the Lieberman-Warner bill.
Voinovich reportedly will try to couple such an amendment with related provisions to weaken the Clean Air Act.
Sound familiar?
Yes, that’s because the Bush administration has made its own efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act — notably the Orwellian "Clear Skies" plan and efforts to create new power industry loopholes through the new source review program. Most of these efforts have failed. But Voinovich undoubtedly will try to use the president’s hot air to revive those efforts to give coal-burning power companies even more breaks.
