Bob McCarty Writes

Four Republican Senators — South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham, New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg and Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson today, asking her to provide critical data requested by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) during Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearings on climate change Oct. 27.

During those hearings, Senator Voinovich first questioned Jackson about the lack of critical analytical data related to the proposed Kerry-Boxer climate change bill.  Later, he sparred verbally with Sen. Barbara Boxer, committee chair (For more details about the hearing, read this post).

An excerpt of the letter written by the four senators appears below:

We share the concerns of our colleagues and encourage you to expeditiously provide the information requested by Senator Voinovich and other Republicans.

As Senators interested in a bipartisan approach to addressing climate change and energy independence this Congress, we have a keen interest in ensuring that cost estimates, models, and other data critical to the legislative process be made available to members of Congress and the public in a timely manner.  We cannot support legislation without this information.

This is good news, especially when one considers that three (Collins, Graham and Snowe) of the four senators who signed the letter are generally regarded by conservatives as useless idiots RINOs (i.e., Republicans In Name Only).

* * *

UPDATE 11/04/09 at 8:57 p.m. Central: Matt Dempsey, a staffer of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, informed me tonight that EPW Democrats are preparing to report out global warming legislation Thursday morning under an expedited fashion without considering any amendments from committee Republicans.