Press Release: House Republicans Introduce Endangerment Resolution

The battle over climate change legislation heats up, as members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently held a press conference on the “introduction of the Resolution of Disapproval on the EPA’s carbon dioxide endangerment finding.” The resolution, which is similar to the Murkowski resolution in the Senate, currently has 79 co-sponsors.  As in the Senate, the resolution of disapproval was brought under the Congressional Review Act and aims to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing regulations to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act; a backdoor power grab that would economically burden businesses and households.


The resolution would prevent the EPA from jumping ahead of Congress to impose costly new regulations on the American economy. Many who oppose the EPA’s intrusive plans contend that such regulations would essentially act as a national energy tax. 


U.S. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican American Energy Solutions Group, was in attendance at Tuesday’s press conference. Regarding the EPA’s proposed initiatives, Pence commented:



Families across America and across the state of Indiana are struggling to pay their bills and the last thing they need is higher energy costs, yet that is precisely what the EPA’s endangerment finding would cause. This finding is nothing more than a backdoor national energy tax that will cap growth and trade jobs.


Republican House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio), commented:



The American people are asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’  They know the last thing we need in a struggling economy is new regulations that amount to a back-door national energy tax.  This tax will hit every middle-class American family and small business owner when they drive a car, flip on a light-switch, or buy any product made the United States.


U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), commented:



The endangerment finding that EPA put out last year is fatally flawed.


Rep. Barton then proceeded to state:



We want to send a very clear signal that what the EPA has done is wrong and it should be overturned by the elected members of the House and the Senate.


In today’s Politico, U.S. Rep., Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), commented:



The EPA has not only moved away from its mission of being the Environmental Protection Agency, now they are the Economic Punishment Agency.


There are many concerns with the EPA’s attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from our country’s emissions of fossil fuels, which propel the economy’s growth and account for 85 percent of the nation’s energy. The overarching purpose of  the press conference, hosted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans, was to emphasize the economic burden of decreasing emission levels, and increasing energy costs for businesses and consumers. Limiting emission levels rations and therefore limits production, which would only guarantee a further relapse of the U.S. economy.


Republican House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio) jointly introduced a new resolution, similar to the Murkowski Resolution, which would prevent a a power grab by the EPA. This resolution concisely points to the lack of validity in the EPA’s endangerment finding and therefore states that the EPA should not jump ahead of Congress with immense plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.