EPA and Obama are Bullies

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Please email your Senator in support of Senator. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., bill introduced into the Senate on Nov. 3 that prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from rejecting a state implementation plan under certain provisions of the Clean Air Act when the state has not been given “reasonable time” to develop the plan.

The bill, S. 1805, comes in response to EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which addresses power plant emissions the agency has identified as crossing state lines. The EPA rule became final in July and requires compliance starting in January 2012, a timeframe many state officials have argued will be nearly impossible to meet.  Under the legislation, the compliance deadline for the rule would be
delayed until states have been given at least two years to develop a state regulatory plan.
The fact is that the EPA is crafting new rules left and right with little to no regard for their practicality and negative consequences on our economy, the cost of electricity, and the severe unemployment situation that the US is currently dealing with at this time. Complying with these rules under the current timeline is not feasible and freezing states out of the due process is unprecedented and wrong,”  The states in the past have always had a chance to at minimum develop their own rules to try to balance environmental issues and to protect jobs and avoid skyrocketing electricity bills.  The proposed legislation trying to move back to the ways the process used to work, not as it is working under the current administration.

States have long been given the power to develop their own regulatory regimes, with federal intervention occurring only under limited circumstances.

EPA and the Obama administration in recent months has taken steps to disregard this process by implementing federal emissions rules on a rushed timeline without giving states adequate time to develop their own plans.  Unless action is taken states are faced with meeting new EPA regulations starting in January, which could lead to layoffs, tens of millions of dollars in increased utilities costs and dramatically increased electricity prices for many Americans. S. 1805 requires the EPA to give states at least two years to submit their own regulatory plan and prohibits the agency from implementing a federal plan if states have not been given enough time.

By a vote of 249-169, the House of Representatives on Sept. 23 approved H.R. 2401, the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, which mandates a study of the cumulative impact of several EPA rules, including the cross-state rule, on the economy. The White House threatened to veto the House legislation.

The Obama administration under his leadership either doesn’t appreciate or understand the impact of these onerous EPA mandates or they do and are supporting them with no interest of truly trying to get our country back on the right track but instead are doing it exclusively for political means.  I think the latter is the case.

During these difficult times, why is our administration and the EPA pushing accelerated and overly controlling restrictions on our economy when in fact our economy especially now, needs to recover.  It simply makes no logical sense.  There are reasonable balances and trade offs in all choices that are made—why doesn’t our federal government recognize this—well—you know the answer to that question now don’t you?