(Source: The Blade)
By The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
March 09--Imagine retired Republican Sen. George Voinovich's surprise over the apparent greenhouse conversion of his former Senate colleague from Ohio. Democrat Sherrod Brown, who faces re-election in 2012, recently expressed reservations about green laws adversely affecting industry in the state.
While his concerns about the economic repercussions of emissions mandates on Ohio manufacturers may have merit, his latest move to rein in greenhouse-gas regulations is politically suspect. Last year, he opposed an effort by Senator Voinovich and others to curb the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authority over greenhouse gas regulations.
Now the lawmaker, who generally gets high marks from environmental advocates, has written a letter to the White House urging caution over regulations meant to curtail carbon emissions from coal.
"Without careful consideration," Mr. Brown wrote President Obama, "the unintended consequences of imprudent regulation could ultimately undermine our shared objectives of reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions and spurring economic growth."
The EPA began to phase in new rules this year based on the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Clean Air Act authorizes the federal agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. In questioning the regulations, it appears Mr. Brown has broken with environmentalists to do the bidding of Ohio industries.
Those industries, and the coal-fired utility power plants that supply much of their electricity, support initiatives recently approved by House Republicans to stop the attempt to regulate greenhouse gases.
Yet even as the Democrat seems to be aligning himself with industrial polluters and against the EPA attempt to regulate the gases that cause global warming, he's also playing it safe to get re-elected. He has not joined half a dozen Senate Democrats co-sponsoring compromise legislation to delay implementation of new regulations on power plants.
A Brown spokesman indicated the senator had no plans to sign on to West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller's bill putting the EPA power on hold for two years. Nor does he plan to introduce his own legislation to stall the burdensome rules -- yet. But his letter to the White house on the topic put his reservations on record, without restricting his options.
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