Rep. Lewis Seeks to Withhold Climate Funding

Rep. Jerry Lewis is burnishing his conservative credentials as he moves to strengthen his effort to chair the House Appropriations Committee. He is threatening to strip funding from regulations adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly climate change rules, Politico reports.

Lewis is aiming at the EPA’s “ongoing arbitrary interpretation of the Clean Air Act” – its attempt to begin regulating greenhouse gases in January, as he put it in a letter to the agency. Lewis promises to refuse support for federal funding to regulate greenhouse gases in the 112th Congress “unless Congress passes bipartisan energy legislation specifically providing the authority to do so.”

Lewis warns that the new House will conduct “unprecedented levels of oversight.” He indicates the GOP will also go after EPA regulations concerning spilled milk on dairy farms, airborne dust, lawn fertilizer and arsenic in ground water.