Protection of the environment has become as politically contentious as abortion at or nation's Capitol. According to ClimateWire and the New York Times, the federal budget fight is stuck on Republican initiatives to limit the EPA's power to over climate and water rules. And abortion.
Controversial policy provisions meant to defund U.S. EPA's rulemaking for greenhouse gas emissions and abortion programs are the key obstacles to negotiating a government funding package through September, Senate Democrats and administration officials said yesterday.
Republicans say that everything is on the table -- including money and riders. But many of the riders are ideological, not financial, and the environment is central to many of them.
Nineteen of the provisions cut cash in those areas. They roll back $8.4 million that's designated for the EPA greenhouse gas registry, end new rules by the Department of Interior to locate surface mines farther from streams, block EPA efforts to increase ethanol, and defund the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among others.
