In this morning’s Dispatch, the paper reports on a letter recently sent to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown that was signed by executives from various Ohio companies, a letter that urges Brown to support a bill that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating the greenhouse gases thought to cause climate change.
Although environmentalists are wary of Brown’s support of technology designed to allow utility companies to burn Ohio coal without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, they largely back the senator, who likes to boast that “Ohio really is on the road to being the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.”
In contrast to Brown, environmentalists view other state officials with deep skepticism. While Brown wants the EPA to wait one year before acting, Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland both outright oppose EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson issuing new regulations that would restrict carbon-dioxide emissions.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, introduced a resolution last week to block her action. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has introduced a similar bill, while Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., unveiled a measure that would delay any EPA action for two years.
And in a move that worried some environmentalists, Brown joined Rockefeller to warn Jackson that they had “serious economic and energy security concerns” about the EPA imposing new regulations. The two urged the agency to wait until Congress approves its own climate-change measure – though Brown stopped short at signing on to Rockefeller’s bill.
“I’m a little disappointed in that recent letter that he and Rockefeller put together,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, based in Washington. “The bottom line is he co-signed a letter that had the appearance of pressuring the EPA to delay action.”
David Leland, former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said he has “known Sherrod since we were in our 20s, and I can’t think of a person more likely to be pro-environment and pro-new industry than him. But he also has to represent 11 million people in Ohio, and some of them don’t feel that way.”
Even President Barack Obama has come under criticism from environmentalists for his backing of clean coal and nuclear power. Although Obama endorsed both in his 2008 presidential campaign, Strickland said, Obama probably has “surprised some in the environmental community who simply believe all of our efforts should be directed” toward energy efficiency or renewable energy.
