WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a Republican effort to ban the Environmental Protection Agency from controlling the gases blamed for global warming.
Republicans still planned to pass an identical bill in the House today, even though it has little chance of becoming law.
In a 50-50 vote, the Senate rejected a measure by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma that would have repealed a 2009 finding by federal scientists that climate change caused by greenhouse gases endangers human health and would have prevented the agency from using existing law to regulate heat-trapping pollution. The amendment — to a small-business bill — needed 60 votes to pass.
Four Democrats — Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — supported the McConnell bid. One Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, voted against it.
Meanwhile, the Republican- controlled House is expected to pass an identical bill today, but the White House has threatened to veto any bill that reaches the president’s desk.
Republicans, in hours of debate, painted EPA regulations as an overreach of government that will harm the economy and lead to job losses.
