6 Dems vote with House GOP to reverse Biden-era climate rules

Six House Democrats broke from their party on Thursday to pass a pair of bills blocking Biden administration-era green energy rules.

It’s the latest rebuke from more moderate Democrats of the progressive wing of their party.

One resolution, led by Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., seeks to overturn regulations imposed by former President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) for new clean energy standards targeting walk-in freezers and coolers.

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Biden speaks during the United Auto Workers union conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington on Jan. 24, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

“I have fought every step of the way to prevent egregious rules from taking effect. These regulations will impose significant financial burdens on small businesses, which will have to absorb major upgrade costs to meet these new, aggressive standards,” Bice told Fox News Digital.

She conceded it “sounds small,” but argued it would place an oversized regulatory burden on small businesses across the country.

“The impact of this regulation would cost small businesses over a billion dollars while only reducing energy use by 6%,” Bice said.

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Bice speaks during a news conference in Rayburn Building on March 1, 2022. (Getty Images)

The second resolution was introduced by Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Texas, and targets Biden-era rules on commercial refrigerators, freezers and refrigerator-freezers.

“House Republicans will not allow the Biden administration’s Green New Scam to burden American businesses and raise consumer prices. We will continue to roll back regulations that rob Americans of choice in the name of a radical climate agenda,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital.

Republicans have been working to overturn many of Biden’s progressive energy regulations since taking the levers of power in Washington earlier this year.

Reps. Jared Golden, right, and Don Davis in Cannon Tunnel on April 30, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

They have a mechanism to do so in Congress via joint resolutions of disapproval, designed as a legislative branch check on executive branch regulatory rule-making. 

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Bice’s resolution got support from six Democrats, while Goldman’s got five.

Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Adam Gray, D-Calif., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., all voted for both. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted for Bice’s but not Goldman’s.