Peterson Threatens to Block Climate Change Legislation
Roll Call Staff
House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said Thursday that a group of 40 to 45 Democratic Members are ready to kill climate change legislation unless their concerns over new Environmental Protection Agency regulations of ethanol and other farm-related issues are addressed.
“I think we’ve got 40 to 45 Democrats, 29 on my committee and another 15,” he said. “If they don’t want to change it, they’ll have to find the votes some other place.”
Peterson said many Democrats have no desire to move on the cap-and-trade legislation, crafted by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and said he could guarantee the Senate wouldn’t act on it.
“In my district, a no vote is a good vote,” he said. “This is not something that I need to do.”
Peterson is particularly angry over proposed EPA rules regulating ethanol and wants to strip the EPA of its authority.
“The EPA should not have anything to do with this stuff,” Peterson said. “You can’t trust them.”
If the ethanol regulations are pursued, “you will have a revolt,” he said.
Peterson also charged that the House climate bill shortchanged rural and municipal electric companies relative to big urban power companies.
“They got screwed,” he said. “We’re going to get a significant increase in electricity rates in rural America.”
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