During the 1990’s, I became increasingly concerned about the growing evidence that our planet was warming and co-sponsored a series of bills to do something about the problem. Because I knew that nothing could pass without bipartisan support, I always sought and fortunately had Republican Senate cosponsors like John Chafee, John McCain, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner. Sadly, we could never get enough votes to enact our proposals, even though we tried hard to negotiate acceptable compromises with colleagues and industries that were opposed.
With each passing year, the problem of climate change became more threatening, and so, when President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency issued regulations in 2015 to limit global warming emissions from power plants based on the Clean Air Act (enacted in 1963, and substantially amended in 1990), I was very grateful and supportive.
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