Today, attempts to rollback parts of the Clean Air Act that direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address carbon pollution failed in the Senate.

In a game of political hide-and-seek, varying polluter interests attempted to highjack a bill (S. 493) that reauthorizes two small business innovation and technology research programs.

It was a stealthy attempt to amend the bill to prevent the EPA from limiting the vast amount of carbon pollution spewing everyday from our power plants, oil refineries, and factories.

Instead of a polluter payday, however, the attempted highjacking exposed confusion among the varying interests targeting the Clean Air Act and showed that navigating how to limit air pollution is a job best left to the experts at the EPA.

Indeed, the votes showed that the Senate process of trying to forge polluter loopholes in the Clean Air Act creates nothing but a political mess. It took four different amendments to the small business bill to try and cater to the various and differing concerns. Each one failed and combined to create one big sinkhole of squabbling polluters interests.

The four failed votes put a spotlight on the separate special interests seeking their own particular version of a rollback.

Simultaneously, the Senate’s polluter compatriots in the House continued their own assault on the Clean Air Act. Picking up where they left off in using the budget battle to gut EPA (see my previous blog here), the House is poised to pass Congressman Upton’s H.R. 910 later tonight – a bill that even overturns the scientific finding that carbon pollution causes climate change.

As these special interest measures collided on the Senate floor and the House legislated away a scientific consensus, the public continued to look on with disgust. A recent poll confirms that 77 percent of Americans, including 61 percent of Republicans, believe that “Congress should let the EPA do its job.” Only 18 percent believe that “Congress should block the EPA from updating pollution standards.

Luckily, 34 senators have actually chosen to stand up for the majority of Americans. They have introduced a resolution (S. Res 119) supporting the economic, environmental, and public health benefits of the Clean Air Act. And more than 150 House members took a similar stand in a letter released this week.

These numbers ensure that if the polluter dollars somehow are successful in an attempt to roll the Clean Air Act on either another bill or during the upcoming budget battles a Presidential veto of their dirty work would be upheld.