One of the Senate's top proponents of action on climate change said today that several of her colleagues intend to introduce climate change bills in the next Congress, spurred on by the recent experience with Superstorm Sandy.

"I think we'll have many," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), adding that the storm that menaced the East Coast last month had raised the profile of climate change both on and off Capitol Hill. "So I have a lot of people working on legislation."

She predicted that several senators would release legislation in the first five months of the new Congress.

Inhofe spoke as U.N. climate talks are under way in Doha, Qatar. No U.S. lawmakers are currently scheduled to attend the talks, which Inhofe dismissed as "an annual party" for bureaucrats.

Inhofe's office has not ruled out the possibility of his attending the talks via video message, as he did last year. But a trip to Qatar would be wasted, he told reporters yesterday, because there is no possibility that the United States will pass comprehensive climate change legislation in the coming years.

"That is a promise," he said. "It's not going to happen. So why go down there and waste a lot of time?"

The Heartland Institute has collected more than 15,000 signatures on a petition demanding Congress rein in a “rogue” Environmental Protection Agency. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and The Heartland Institute will present the petitions to Congress at a public event in the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC on Tuesday, November 27 at 11 a.m.



WHAT: “Rein in the EPA” Petition Presentation and Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, November 27, 11 a.m. EST

WHERE: Capitol Visitors Center, SVC 215, Washington, DC

WHO: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and The Heartland Institute

MEDIA: Open to the public and all press

President Obama's hyperactive regulators went on hiatus in 2011 to get through Election Day. Now with his second term secure, they're about to make up for lost time and then some.

The government defines "economically significant" rules as those that impose annual costs of $100 million or more, and the Bush, Clinton and Bush Administrations each ended up finalizing about 45 major rules per year. The average over Mr. Obama's first two years was 63 but then plunged to 44 for 2011 and 2012 so far. The bureaucracies didn't slow down. They merely postponed and built up a backlog that is about to hit the Federal Register.

We'd report the costs of the major-rule pipeline if we had current data. But the White House budget office document known as the unified agenda that reveals the regulations under development hasn't been published since fall 2011. The delay violates multiple federal laws and executive orders that require an agenda every six months, so we thought readers might like a rough guide to the regulatory flood that is about to roll through the economy.

Sen. James Inhofe said last night in a Web-based interview that he would still be "in charge" of climate skepticism on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, despite ceding his ranking membership to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

"Senator Vitter has said publicly that I will still be in charge on this issue," the Oklahoma Republican said in an interview hosted by climate skeptic Anthony Watts. Inhofe noted that he has spent 10 years as the most vocal man-made climate change disbeliever in the Senate and said he would remain so as a senior member of the EPW Committee.

Inhofe has reached his term limit as the top Republican on the panel.

Earlier in the day, Inhofe told E&E Daily that he was better prepared than any of his colleagues to push back against the science of man-made climate change, which he has famously called "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

"Right now, you can't ignore the highest tax increase in history because of the outcome of the election, and I'm probably a little better-equipped to talk about it than any of the rest of them are," he said.

That largest tax increase in history, he said, would come as President Obama's U.S. EPA rolls out its regulatory regime for carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. A rule has already been proposed for new power plants and is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. Rules for existing power plants and refineries are expected to follow, and greens have begun to push for restrictions for other sectors, including hydraulic fracturing.

One of the mores striking aspects of this presidential campaign is how little President Obama is saying on the stump about his plans for a second-term agenda. So keen is the president to keep his ideas from leaking to the public, that his administration is now trying to hide its regulatory agenda.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe has spent the past week noting that the Obama administration as of today will be missing a statutory deadline on regulatory transparency. The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires federal agencies to publish in the Federal Register descriptions of economically significant regulations they expect to propose. These agendas are required to be published on a semi-annual basis, in both April and October. The Obama administration has now failed to meet this legal requirement since the fall of 2011.

FOXNEWS: Inhofe: EPA 'punting' regs until after election that 'spell doom' for jobs, economy: Republican Sen. James Inhofe says the Environmental Protection Agency has delayed action or “punted” on numerous regulations while President Obama tries to “earn votes” for a second term. The Oklahoma senator and ranking Republican on the chamber’s Committee on Environment and Public Works has released a report stating that when the agency approves the roughly one dozen regulations next year in 2013, they will “spell doom” for jobs and economic growth… Obama's campaign referred a request for comment to the administration. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/21/inhofe-epa-punting-regs-until-after-election-that-pell-doom-for-jobs-economy/#ixzz29z9ai9GW



GREENWIRE: Inhofe says Obama plans post-election 'regulatory onslaught': It's a somewhat new angle from Republicans, who have spent the past few years criticizing Obama for issuing too many expensive regulations that they say kill jobs. Environmental groups, on the other hand, have accused the White House of holding up important rules in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. But in the report, Republicans characterize the Obama administration as a vehicle for the "radical environmental left," with EPA officials waiting to fully pursue their anti-fossil-fuel agenda until after the election. Among the report's list of upcoming regulations, the agency's boiler MACT makes the cut, as does the federal government's efforts to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Such rules would create a "regulatory onslaught that will drive up energy prices, destroy millions of jobs, and further weaken the economy," the report states. An EPA spokeswoman declined to comment. http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2012/10/18/archive/2?terms=Inhofe



INSIDEEPA: Inhofe Says Post-Election EPA Rules Will Shutter Fossil Fuel Production: The report also cites promises allegedly made by former White House climate and energy czar Carol Browner to environmental supporters on a recent call telling them not to worry about the unfinished agenda because Obama is committed to the cause in a second term. “This report is a wake-up call on the economic pain that the 'abusive' Obama EPA plans to inflict next year,” Inhofe says. “It reveals a president who is more concerned about saving his own job than the millions of Americans who are looking for one today.” Inside EPA reported in July that EPA completed most of its controversial work early this year while killing or delaying other regulations until after the election. “I think we all understand there are political windows that are better and others that are worse,” one environmentalist said…EPA did not respond to a request for comment. http://insideepa.com/201210182413318/EPA-Daily-News/Daily-News/inhofe-says-post-election-epa-rules-will-shutter-fossil-fuel-production/menu-id-95.html





DAILYCALLER: Sen. Inhofe warns of unfettered EPA in second Obama term: According to the senator, Obama has moved more to the center with his rhetoric on environmental regulations and away from the far left environmental movement to appeal to voters who are concerned about the economy and their pocketbooks. But during a “second term, he’s made the commitment” to moving his environmental policy back to the left, Inhofe said. “They are all jumping on him. All the Al Gore people, the elites, the MoveOn.orgs, saying, ‘You had control of the House and the Senate you still didn’t do it.’ And he says ‘wait until I get past this election and then I’ll do it.’” http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/18/sen-inhofe-warns-of-unfettered-epa-in-second-obama-term/#ixzz29zFgUrY4



WASHINGTONEXAMINER: Obama Washington Wink-Winking like crazy at EPA: This week, the Columbia Journalism Review and Pro Publica released a report stating that Obama has proved more secretive in some respects than his immediate predecessor in the Oval Office, George W. Bush. One of those quoted by CJR/PP is Society of Environmental Journalists President Ken Ward Jr., a staff reporter for the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, who tweeted this yesterday: "The Obama EPA is the most difficult to get information and answers out of that I've covered in 20 years." That's the kind of transparency we get from politicians who do the Washington Wink-Wink. http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-washington-wink-winking-like-crazy-at-epa/article/2511132#.UISiyBwqURg


HERITAGE: Report: EPA Delaying Job-Killing Regulations to Aid Obama Re-Election: The decision to delay implementation of these rules is part of what the New York Times called a “new calculus on political and policy shifts as the White House sharpens its focus on the president’s re-election.” Tensions between the White House and top environmental regulators flared when the president announced he would delay an EPA rule on ozone emissions until after the election. EPA chief Lisa Jackson was livid, but the president assured her that he would move forward with the rule after the election. Inhofe’s report presents that decision as part of a coordinated strategy to achieve punitive environmental regulations without suffering significant setbacks at the ballot box. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/report-epa-delaying-job-killing-regulations-to-aid-obama-re-election/

CNSNEWS: Report: 'EPA Rules Placed On Hold until after the Election Spell Doom for Jobs and Economic Growth': A new EPW Minority Report provides “A Look Ahead to EPA Regulations for 2013: Numerous Obama EPA Rules Placed On Hold until after the Election Spell Doom for Jobs and Economic Growth.” The report enumerates the slew of environmental regulations that the report says the Obama-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed or punted before the election while President Obama is trying to earn votes; but the Obama-EPA plans to move full speed ahead to implement this agenda if President Obama wins a second term. The report concludes that these rules taken together will inevitably result in the elimination of millions of American jobs, drive up the price of gas at the pump even more, impose construction bans on local communities, and essentially shut down American oil, natural gas, and coal production. http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/report-epa-rules-placed-hold-until-after-election-spell-doom-jobs-and-economic