Koch-linked group serves notice on Senate EPA vote

Original Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/152219-koch-linked-group-serves-notice-on-senate-epa-vote

By Ben Geman

A conservative group that spent heavily in the 2010 elections is pushing Senate lawmakers to vote this week in favor of stripping the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The group Americans for Prosperity — which has strong ties to the conservative Koch brothers — is sending memos to senators urging them to support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) amendment to small-business legislation that’s on the Senate floor.

“The Obama administration’s attempt to use a decades-old statute to advance climate change policy via an unelected bureaucracy must be stopped,” the group states.

The “key vote” alert also urges senators not to vote for a pair of Democratic amendments that would limit or delay the rules while keeping EPA’s regulatory authority intact, alleging neither will “alleviate the painful economic impact or the threat to the separation of powers.”

The memo warns that the group will “rate these votes in our congressional ratings.”

Industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity are using ads to press politically vulnerable lawmakers to vote in favor of scuttling EPA climate rules.

Votes on the climate measures are expected this week, but the timing is uncertain.