Paul Larkin: Senate to vote on nullifying EPA’s ‘license to kill’ California’s gas-powered cars

The Senate will likely vote on whether to invoke the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to nullify an EPA rule that would grant California a “license to kill the gas-powered engine on a nationwide basis.

Paul Larkin : The average person would have been wrong to believe that the EPA was not an American version of the Soviet Union’s Gosplan , an economic planning agency.

Congress has the power to nullify the EPA ’s action by setting aside any new agency rule it finds unwise.

The Congressional Review Act was not designed to second -guess an agency's permitting decisions, says Julian Zelizer .

Zelizer: The EPA 's decision to allow California and other states to outlaw internal-combustion engines is a “rule” under the act.

Paul Larkin : The EPA ’s action would have the same effect as a regulation prohibiting the manufacture and sale of gas-powered vehicles.

He says the law does not allow the government to achieve indirectly what it cannot accomplish directly.

Larkin says the Senate parliamentarian is an employee of the Senate , not a member; only the latter may vote on the issue of whether to nullify the EPA 's action.