A victory for O2 lovers..

President Bush's inappropriately (probably sarcastically) named "Clear skies" initiative was killed in committee yesterday. Hurray! If the President had his way, this would be the clear skies we would wake up to every morning:

From the Washington Post:

President Bush's bid to rewrite federal air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress yesterday when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken the central pillars of the nation's environmental protection framework.

The setback is a body blow to the White House's prized plan and a victory for environmentalists who have long said that the "Clear Skies" bill is a euphemism for rolling back safeguards at the behest of industry.

Senator Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI) joined Democrats and Independent Senator Jim Jeffords to deadlock the committee 7-7. The bill could come up again, but the two sides appear to be too far apart to bridge their differences.

A central disagreement was whether the bill -- originally aimed at reducing the emissions of acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and toxic mercury from coal-fired power plants and other industries -- should also address carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming. That issue cost the Republican majority Chafee's crucial vote, said Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio).

"Chafee thinks this is the biggest problem facing the world, and the chairman [Inhofe] has a sign in his office saying this is a hoax," Voinovich said as he threw up his hands.

You can check out my position on the "Clear Skies" Initiative in my December post take a deep breath... (it's a good read)