Herger: EPA's Attempt to Circumvent Congress Recklessly Endangers our Economy
Statement
Herger: EPA's Attempt to Circumvent Congress Recklessly Endangers our Economy
Congressman Herger (R-CA) issued a statement today in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) announcement of its final endangerment finding that would allow it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The EPA's endangerment finding comes on the heels of news from the Energy Information Administration that U.S. emissions for 2008 decreased 2.2.% due to high energy prices and the economic downturn. Herger's comments follow below:
"I believe that the EPA's finding is a flawed policy decision of historic proportions. As Congress continues to debate damaging "cap and tax' legislation, this agency has taken it upon itself to sidestep the legislative process and use the administrative process to impose a rule that will burden American businesses and manufacturers with crippling regulation during a serious economic downturn. The Clean Air Act was clearly never intended to regulate emissions on such a scale. Congress wrote this law four decades ago to reduce the small levels of truly harmful pollutants. The EPA's latest bureaucratic assault on our economy is a political ploy to add momentum to the Copenhagen Climate Negotiations as the release of disturbing email messages from England's Climatic Research Unit have brought into question the validity of the "science' advocates have depended on to justify such overarching policy.
"As we currently cope with unemployment levels not seen in a generation, the EPA's action could result in the loss of 800,000 jobs annually, with some industries seeing losses exceeding 50%, while costing small businesses billions in compliance costs. This decision could kill even more jobs at a time when more than 15 million workers are already unemployed. In making this decision, the EPA intends to impose a regulatory recession on the American people. I am strongly supporting legislation to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. I urge the President to overturn this new policy and allow Congress to exercise its proper authority on this issue."
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