The Republican-led House has voted to "stop," "block" or "undermine" efforts to protect the environment 110 times since taking over the majority in January, two senior Democrats said last week.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who sponsored a bill that passed the House in 2009 that would have established a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions, said the current House has done more to scuttle environmental protections than any in history.

"The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants, oil refineries and factories," said Waxman, who serves as top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Natural Resources ranking member Markey, meanwhile, said the Republican agenda was a rifle "pointed right at the heart of America's clean energy future."

The lawmakers provided a chart of all votes the House has taken since January that they deem likely to have a harmful effect on the environment. Republicans have argued the environmental regulations they targeted are overly burdensome and hurt the economy and job creation.

The Democrats timed their release to coincide with floor votes last week on a bill to fund U.S. EPA and the Interior Department in fiscal 2012. The bill (H.R. 2584) would pair deep cuts for programs at the two agencies with numerous restrictions on environmental regulation.

Markey, who favors hyperbolic language, said earlier in the week that the spending bill was so toxic it should only be handled "with a Hazmat suit." The House has stopped debating the spending bill for the time being while it works on debt ceiling issues.

But even prior to the funding legislation, the Democrats say, the House had a clear anti-environmental record. The chamber has voted 20 times against regulating emissions linked to climate change. That includes 10 votes taken during floor discussion of a bill (H.R. 910) sponsored by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would permanently strip EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The bill passed the House in April but has since stalled in the Senate.

Upton said at the time that preventing EPA from regulating carbon dioxide would preserve the original intent of the Clean Air Act, which he said was never meant to be a mechanism to address climate change.

"The Energy Tax Prevention Act simply prevents EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, an intention that Congress explicitly rejected when the Clean Air Act was last reauthorized in 1990," Upton said, adding that his bill "preserves the Clean Air Act as it stands today and does not prevent EPA from continuing to monitor and reduce nearly 200 hazardous pollutants -- like lead and ozone -- that damage public health."

The House has also voted against federal restrictions on conventional pollutants for water and air 28 times, the two lawmakers said. They pointed to House passage of a bill by Transportation Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and ranking member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) that would shift regulatory authority over water, wetlands and mountaintop-mining from U.S. EPA to the states (E&E Daily, July 11).

The vote came as EPA imposes tougher reviews and requirements on proposed mountaintop-removal mines. "What we are experiencing, at least in the Appalachian region, is an overreach by EPA," Rahall said at the time.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said at the time that the veto and other environmental restrictions were evidence of the Obama administration's hostility to the coal industry and the need for the Mica-Rahall bill.

"Intentionally delaying the permit approval process has led to a slow-bleed of jobs throughout Appalachia," she said. "This bill reinforces the state's role in the permit approval process and its original jurisdiction over land and water resources."

The two Democrats also counted 27 votes "to undermine protection for public lands and coastal areas," including passage in May of a bill (H.R. 1231) to allow leasing on the East and West coasts of the United States.

The bill's sponsor, House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), said it would triple the amount of oil and gas currently produced in the nation's waters (E&ENews PM, May 12).

Waxman and Markey noted that votes for these and other bills tended to fall along party lines, with Republicans voting with their leadership 95 percent of the time and Democrats voting in opposition 84 percent of the time.

Markey contrasted the high level of party unity on environmental issues with disagreements within the Republican caucus on how best to deal with the federal debt limit.

"While House Republicans may not be able to agree on how to destroy our economy, they are in lock-step in their commitment to destroy our environment," he said.

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