After a Senate vote on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency has maintained the power to regulate greenhouse gas pollution.
In late 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gas emissions could be considered a danger to human health and thus could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The EPA then developed a set of standards to limit those emissions for big polluters. The standards go into effect next January.
In an effort to prevent that from happening, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) proposed a Congressional resolution that would deny the EPA the authority to move ahead with the rules.
On Thursday, however, the Senate rejected Murkowski's resolution, 53 votes to 47. All 41 Senate Republicans supported the resolution, and they were joined by six Democrats.
The close vote has many members of the environmental community feeling a little bit uncomfortable, and according to the New York Times, a group of Congressmen are already plotting the next attempt to prevent the EPA regulations from going into effect.
