California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman today said he expects the House Energy and Power Subcommittee to approve a measure stripping U.S. EPA of its greenhouse gas regulatory authorities Thursday, despite his efforts to argue against it.

But the Energy and Commerce Committee's ranking member told an audience at the left-leaning Center for American Progress that the bill from committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) would meet the same fate that his own comprehensive cap-and-trade bill met two years ago -- it will clear the House only to die in the Senate.

"Passage in the House does not produce a law," Waxman said. "That's something I really learned last year and something the Republicans will learn soon enough."

The Upton bill was introduced in the upper chamber by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and has already drawn the support of most Senate Republicans and one Democrat -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Inhofe, said he expects other moderate Democrats either to co-sponsor the measure or to vote for it. "We know there are several Democrats who understand the negative impacts of EPA climate regs on their constituents," he said in an e-mail. "We will continue to work with them to gain their support on the Inhofe-Upton bill as it moves through the process."

But Senate procedures set a 60-vote hurdle for controversial legislation, one that Waxman's cap-and-trade bill did not meet after it cleared the House in 2009 and one that seems likely to stymie the Upton-Inhofe bill, as well.

If the Senate does approve the bill to stop EPA from regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, Waxman said he would expect President Obama to veto it, whether it comes attached to a federal appropriations bill or not. The Republican-controlled House approved a seven-month spending bill last month that would prevent EPA from using funds to craft and enforce its carbon rules for stationary sources through the end of this fiscal year.

"The administration has got to stand up to Republicans, and I can't believe they would accept any of these riders and cuts to EPA," Waxman said. "And they're going to have to fight this out."

Some analysts have said the president might accept a temporary stay on EPA's carbon rules in exchange for other Republican compromises or to avoid a government shutdown when current spending legislation expires later this month. But the White House has indicated the president would not sign such a bill, and Waxman made it clear he plans to hold Obama to that position.

"Republicans have made the continuing funding resolution a battleground," he said. "They cannot shut the government down on this issue. They've got to have their bluff called.

"And I expect the administration to stand up and be counted. It's one of the key tenets by which the president said he wanted to become the leader of our country," Waxman added.