Bill Owens Lies About Helping To Ease Regulation

Press Release

Bill Owens is lying to voters about his record on regulation.

"Small businesses are the engine that drive our economy, and they identify "unreasonable government regulations' as one of their biggest challenges to growth," said Matt Doheny, the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties' candidate in the 21st district. "My opponent, however, voted against the most comprehensive reform in generations. So when he suggests he's concerned about reducing the regulatory burden, he's not telling the truth."

Owens voted against the Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, which would have made him and other elected leaders accountable for major rules changes. [Roll Call #901, 12/7/11]

Instead, our current congressman opted to keep 300,000 unelected federal regulators in charge of everything, including whether teens can work on family farms or if spilled milk should be classified as an oil spill.

"My opponent takes credit for stopping these measures in his new ad, but neglects to mention he could have prevented bureaucrats from trying to impose them in the first place if he had voted for the REINS Act," said Doheny. "Bill Owens would rather allow the Obama administration to continue advancing its job-killing agenda through regulation than take back Congress's constitutional power."

Unchecked by Congress, the Obama administration has proposed the following agenda through regulation:

· Cap and trade: The Environmental Protection Agency's push to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, especially those from coal-fired power plants, will cause companies to pass higher energy costs to consumers or curtail expansion plans. Bill Owens supported the cap-and-trade legislation that the Democrat-controlled House passed in 2009, which would have cost every American household an additional $1,761 per year.

· War on coal: Alpha Natural Resources announced it will close eight of its mines and cut 1,200 positions because of the "regulatory environment that's aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal."

President Obama's "relentless regulatory assault," as the Wall Street Journal coined it, has caused 20 percent of all U.S. coal plants to close since 2009. More than 200 coal-fired generators are scheduled to shutdown in the future. The coal industry provides 550,000 American jobs.

Owens voted against a House bill that would have limited the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas and restrict the Interior Department's overreach on new coal mining rules. [Roll Call #603, 9/21/12]

· Cement: Owens voted twice against bipartisan legislation that would have delayed implementation of EPA rules against cement manufacturers that would have been cost-prohibitive or "effectively impossible to meet," prompting layoffs or jobs moving overseas. [Roll Call #764, 10/6/11]

Owens said he voted against the bill because "no one in the district contacted me about this."

"This is just a small sampling of the Obama administration's attempt to regulate most every aspect of your life -- from the time you repainted your house to the amount of lead in your gun's ammunition," said Doheny. "I'm willing to fight for regulatory reform, while my opponent is doing little to limit these silly and sometimes dangerous rules."

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