A House panel approved a bill to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating tailpipe emissions — but the measure's future is uncertain.The bill sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., would overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision that said the EPA has the legal right to regulate tailpipe emissions as a danger to public health under the Clean Air Act.
The committee's Energy and Power subcommittee, after two hours of debate, approved the measure by a voice vote. House Republicans are putting the measure on a fast track, with opening statements planned for Monday by the full committee and a vote by the full House later this month.
And the FCC:
FCC Chairman (and rumored Energy Secretary nominee) Julius Genachowski is denying a charge that White House officials improperly influenced the commission’s net neutrality rules.
In a November 2009 letter to Genachowski, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said media reports suggest “that Obama administration officials had knowledge of and potentially contributed to [the] crafting of” the controversial net neutrality rules.
From the Wall Street Journal yesterday:
House Republicans took the first step toward blocking the Federal Communications Commission's effort to assert authority over Internet lines Wednesday, advancing one of several policy disputes GOP lawmakers have with the Obama administration.
On a 15-8 partisan vote, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology approved a measure to toss out new FCC "net neutrality" rules which would prohibit Internet providers from deliberately blocking legal websites or Internet services.
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Read my stories on Republican efforts to undo and mitigate the FCC's new "net neutrality" regulations HERE and HERE.
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