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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Global Warming Pollution: Senate Vote Expected on EPA Jurisdiction

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Thursday, June 10, 2010   

HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut was among the states leading the charge to clean up air pollution from vehicles while tackling climate change. In 2004, its citizens passed the Clean Cars legislation. Back then, the auto industry opposed that bill.

Fast-forward to today. A resolution by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act is up for a vote in the senate - and there are some strange bedfellows. The auto industry has joined environmental groups in opposing the move.

Christopher Phelps of Environment Connecticut says preserving EPA's authority would extend Connecticut's success nationwide.

"We are on track, with the Clean Cars standards, toward reducing both air pollution and global warming pollutants from new cars and trucks here in Connecticut. We also are making our cars and trucks more efficiently and saving consumers at the pump millions of dollars."

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which strenuously opposed Connecticut's Clean Cars law, favors EPA jurisdiction over greenhouse gas emissions and opposes Murkowski's amendment. Charles Territo, communications director for the Alliance, explains why.

"Our concern is if the Murkowski resolution is enacted into law, the historic agreement creating a national program for greenhouse-gas and fuel-economy regulations would collapse. That was a priority for the auto industry, in order to avoid a state-by-state patchwork of regulations."

He adds that before making the agreement with the Obama administration, the industry was facing the possibility of oversight by two federal agencies and 14 different states, which he says would have created a regulatory nightmare.

Even if the Murkowski amendment passes Congress, it's expected to be vetoed by President Obama. Still, Phelps says a "yes" vote could send a disturbing message.

"Senators who vote 'yes' for the Murkowski amendment are basically voting to overturn climate science. They're voting to tell the Environmental Protection Agency that climate change is not a threat."




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