Lisa Murkowski
Congress’s likely failure to pass a comprehensive climate change legislation this year is paving the way for a stricter and probably less corporate-friendly regulation regime to be administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Last month’s landmark announcement by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson that green house gas and CO2 emissions represent a public health danger, was a clear indication that her agency would not shy away from using its regulatory gauntlet to advance President Obama’s climate change agenda, if the legislative route failed.
Not surprisingly, lobbyists for energy and power companies have been storming Capitol Hill to ensure that the EPA stays put. One steady ally in that fight has been Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Last year she submitted an amendment — partly drafted by industry lobbyists, according to the Washington Post — that would have blocked the EPA from regulating CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions.
Senator Murkowski has been rewarded for her timely advocacy. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, she received $157,000 from the nation’s electric utilities last year and more than $244,000 since 2005, making her Congress’s top recipient of campaign contributions from the power sector.