Post climategate, cap and trade not such a hot idea

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., has signed on to legislation that would block the EPA from implementing its proposed greenhouse gas regulations. That’s a pretty clear sign that House Democrats are feeling the heat on climate change.

Skelton, 78, has been in Congress for 33 years and is chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee. But in 2010 he may face a tough re-election fight.

Last June, Skelton voted with his party leadership for a cap-and-trade bill. The measure passed the House 219-212.

According to Politico, Skelton has tried to present his cap-and-trade vote to the folks back home as an effort to protect people from the EPA. The thinking here is that since it would be Congress, not the Obama administration, writing the emissions reduction rules, it would be much better.

Whether or not Skelton’s constituents were buying that, it became irrelevant once the bill stalled in the Senate. That created the possibility that the EPA would simply assert the right to regulate greenhouse gases on its own.

Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce and now Democrats like House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., are pushing legislation to prevent that.

Skelton has signed on to Peterson’s bill, which would reverse the EPA finding that greenhouse gases are a pollutant.