Urge your senators to defeat harmful amendments to the Interior appropriations bill

The Senate will vote this week on the critical spending bill that funds the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior and other agencies that oversee environmental programs. Although the bill, for the most part, is a bipartisan pro-environment bill, the Senate is expected to vote, possibly as early as today, on amendments that would significantly weaken the bill and block key activities to combat global warming.

One particularly worrisome amendment, sponsored by Senator Murkowski (R-AK), would prohibit the EPA from regulating global warming pollutants from power plants under the Clean Air Act even though in May the EPA officially recognized that this pollution poses a danger to our health and therefore is subject to regulation under the act. Another harmful amendment, proposed by Senator Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Harkin (D-IA), would prevent the EPA from calculating and informing the public of the full environmental impact of biofuels. The amendment would overturn a 2007 law that requires a complete analysis to ensure that biofuels will actually reduce global warming pollution.