Murkowski Amendment blocked

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s plan to limit EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases won’t be coming up for a vote after all.

This, after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers sent letters to Congress warning that the Alaska Republican’s amendment would prevent the EPA from completing its recent proposal to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions. If that had happened, the industry would face “a patchwork of conflicting state and federal regulations,” the Alliance warned in its letter.

A Murkowski spokesman said Senate Democratic leaders prevented a vote on her amendment and that the senator disputes the EPA administrator’s view that the amendment would prevent the EPA from completing its vehicle proposal. “They’ve gone out of their way to refuse to debate the merits of this” amendment, the spokesman said.

Environmentalists are crowing at the turn of events — a rare case where environmentalists and auto makers teamed up in favor of regulation.