One Senator's Crusade to Combat a McConnell Anti-EPA Onslaught

When Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse started his 95th Senate floor speech on global warming, the discerning cable viewer witnessed a shift from his bully pulpit admonition that often begins, "We are sleepwalking our way to a climate catastrophe."

"Mr. President," he said, standing over a small dais in the back of the chamber in April, "the distinguished majority leader, the senior senator from Kentucky, is resolutely opposed to any serious conversation about climate change."

Four months into Sen. Mitch McConnell's quixotic effort to return the U.S. Senate to consensus-building, the Democrat from Rhode Island laid a shot across McConnell's bow.  Whitehouse chastised McConnell for an open letter he sent to governors urging them to ignore a proposed U.S. EPA rule that would require states to build a plan for slashing power-sector carbon emissions.

Whitehouse stood in front of an iconic photo of the planet Earth, now propped up behind him for nearly every weekly speech on global warming.  He noted its dog-eared corners during his 100th speech last month.

"It turns out that Kentucky is already crafting a plan for complying with President Obama's Clean Power Plan," Whitehouse said.  Relaxed, but buttoned up for a Senate fight, he spoke to a nearly empty chamber and jabbed his finger at the air.

Whitehouse named names:  "Kentucky has an energy and environment secretary.  His name is Dr. Len Peters.  Dr. Peters does not mock or disparage the EPA."

He pointed to state agencies, cities, electric utilities, universities and professors in McConnell's home state that support climate action.  That day, he made a full-throated argument that Kentucky is running away from McConnell, who was re-elected for a fifth time in November. During McConnell's campaign, tens of millions of dollars were spent on his behalf to turn "Obama's war on coal" into votes for McConnell.

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