Rockefeller to join GOP to vote against EPA climate rules

A senior Democrat said Tuesday night he'd vote with Republicans on a measure to cancel EPA rules to rein in climate change.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that he would support Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) resolution of disapproval to halt new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on greenhouse gases.

“I intend to vote for Senator Murkowski’s Resolution of Disapproval because I believe we must send a strong message that the fate of West Virginia’s economy, our manufacturing industries, and our workers should not be solely in the hands of EPA," Rockefeller said in a statement.

The veteran senator's vote lends Republicans their most prominent bipartisan support for the EPA rules, which the GOP has derided as a backdoor plan to enacting the "cap and trade" legislation. He had said earlier that he might support the resolution.

Rockefeller acknowledged that the resolution — which requires only a simple majority to pass, instead of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster — may not pass. "But my vote is squarely in favor of securing West Virginia’s future," he said about his home state, which relies heavily on coal mining.

Murkowski's resolution is set to come up for a vote in the Senate later this week.