US Governors Ask Congress To Stop EPA Rules

epa-200x200By Siobhan Hughes (Dow Jones)

Governors of 18 U.S. states on Wednesday urged Congress to stop “harmful” Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, saying the agency isn’t equipped to deal with “the very real potential for economic harm.”

The governors, led by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, made their request in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and their Republican counterparts. The letter was also signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who has been cited as a possible contender in the 2012 presidential election.

“We feel compelled to guard against a regulatory approach that would increase the cost of electricity and gasoline prices, manufactured products, and ultimately harm the competitiveness of the U.S. economy,” the governors wrote. “We strongly urge Congress to stop harmful EPA regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions that could damage those vital interests.”

The Obama administration’s EPA fired back that it “rejects the premise that addressing greenhouse gases threatens the economy,” saying that other EPA actions “have led to innovations and the creation of new markets that can spur economic growth.” The EPA “will continue to follow the law and the science, which overwhelmingly indicates climate change is a real and growing threat to the American people,” spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said in a statement.

The governors’ letter, signed mostly by Republicans, intensifies a battle with the Obama administration’s EPA as it prepares to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles and stationary sources such as power plants. The rules are due to be finalized by the EPA later this month. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said the regulations for power plants, factories and oil refineries will be effective on a delayed basis, beginning in 2011, allowing companies extra time to plan ahead.

Coal, oil and manufacturing states have warned of the costs of complying, which could involve equipment purchases and other spending. In Congress, multiple measures are pending to hinder the EPA. One measure, from coal-state lawmakers including Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) would suspend EPA regulations for two years. Another measure, led by oil-state Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) would overturn the EPA regulations.

“A simple delay of EPA action will do nothing to provide relief to Americans looking for jobs or businesses looking to make new investments in our states,” the governors wrote in urging Congress to stop the EPA outright and to pass comprehensive energy legislation. “Furthermore, such delay of EPA action only creates more uncertainty in a difficult fiscal environment.”

The letter emboldened Republicans already at odds with the EPA. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R, Okla.) said in a statement that the EPA should “stop this tax and the regulatory nightmare it will create, and work with Congress to pass an all-of-the-above energy plan that means more jobs, more energy, and more security for America.”

Read the rest at the Wall Street Journal.

13 Responses to US Governors Ask Congress To Stop EPA Rules

  1. Neil F. AGWD/BSD March 11, 2010 at 10:04 pm #

    Lisa Jackson? Oh, I feel like a dope. Why did I think it was Sheila Jackson-Lee? So, who is Sheila Jackson-Lee then? Oh well.
    Anyway, I was suprised to see T-Paw’s (Tim Pawlenty) name in there. I wasn’t exactly sure where he stood on the issue to tell you the truth. Good to see that my guv is taking this stand.

  2. Hal Groar March 13, 2010 at 11:52 am #

    I think Tim is an agw believer, if I remember right. Didn’t he sign the 25% of energy must come from Green energy by 2015 bill into law? I may have the date wrong, but I know he signed some sort of clean energy bill that is already making Excel crazy.

  3. Cubanshamoo March 14, 2010 at 4:09 am #

    “We, EPA press agents, routinely wrote scare stories about the hazards of chemicals, employing words like cancer and birth defects to splash a little cold water in reporters faces…we were out to whip the public into a frenzy about the environment. William Sibbison. Press Officer of EPA since 1970.

  4. Rob N. Hood March 15, 2010 at 10:55 am #

    If the above is a true statement and not taken out of context or outright fabricated- why whould they do that? For what reason?

  5. Hal Groar March 15, 2010 at 9:30 pm #

    Thanks Neil! I read the article, Excel is up against it! 30% by 2020! It drives me nuts when government tells companies how run their business. I understand they are a utility but they still have stock holders. If Pawlenty is riding the wave of skepticism back to normal then where does that leave us? We have to eat the rate hikes and face the outages and put up with the social scorn for running an air conditioner when the temps hit 80 degrees. He leaves the state and brags about his concern for the environment. We are stuck with the mess! Welcome to Minnesota!!

  6. paul wenum March 15, 2010 at 11:25 pm #

    Thank President Obama for this conundrum we are in my friends. nice read. Get ready for 11/2010.

    • Rob N. Hood March 16, 2010 at 8:09 am #

      The author of thr above post is nothing more than another “victim”. He proudly votes, so obviously he has done everything required from him as a citizen to preserve and protect freedom, justice, civil rights, economic welfare, social welfare, a positive place in the international community, quality of life for himself and other American citizens, and no doubt judges that anything that has ever taken a turn for the worse in his personal life involving a group larger than say, just himself, was completely the result of “the others”.

      What was it that was said about someone who acts in the same way over and over and over again expecting a different outcome each time yet always getting the same result but still refuses to accept that maybe THEY just might have something to do with the outcome?

      However, problems can NOT be solved if those who have contributed to the problem absolutely refuse and deny to acknowledge or even speculate about how they may have contributed.

      If you refuse to ask yourself what can I do DIFFERENTLY to help change the state of things and what did I do to contribute to how things got this way then history is doomed to repeat itself over and over again.

      It must be nice to be above it all and in a pearly-gate state of mind that requires no self-introspection to determine how he fits into the problems of the larger community as a whole.

      The American people elected and enabled the criminals both political and corporate and have given them our proxy to “do what it takes” so we can live a standard of living and mass indulgence and waste far beyond what is reasonable, while we “look the other way” and deny our complicity and hope that our actions and inaction will never catch up with us. We the people have NOT held them accountable in any way.

      We are part of the system and unless we also change the system will not change, we’ll just put in “new” players. The real problem is the they ALL work for the same corporate hegemony/oligarcy.

      • Neil F. AGWD/BSD March 16, 2010 at 6:25 pm #

        Your communist screed is becoming very tiresome. I mean really, you sound like Karl Marx.
        “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” -Karl Marx

        • Rob N. Hood March 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm #

          Perhaps, but it’s the truth. It shouldn’t matter who it “sounds like”. Wake up.

  7. Cubanshamoo March 16, 2010 at 2:37 am #

    Here a clarification for leftist stupids (sorry for repeating these two synonimous): “So we have to offer up scary scenarios , make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubst we might have…” Stephen Schneider in Discover magazine 20 years ago.

  8. paul wenum March 16, 2010 at 7:18 pm #

    “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That’s Robbie Boy.

  9. Rob N. Hood March 20, 2010 at 3:46 pm #

    Ummm, that would be you and Neil, Paul, not me.

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