Bipartisan Pettiness on Climate Change

House Republicans will hold their first hearing on climate change in more than two years this week. Sadly, its focus is unlikely to be sensible strategies that are sorely needed to reduce the U.S.’s greenhouse-gas emissions, such as setting a price on carbon, but rather how existing efforts to protect the climate are too expensive.

Representative Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy and power, has invited representatives of 13 federal agencies to appear, asking them to report on how much money they’ve spent on climate change; how many employees or contractors work on those files; the regulations they’ve issued or are developing; and the grants they’ve awarded.