The Train Wreck at the Obama EPA

With the “deadline” to reach a debt ceiling compromise fast approaching, the debt crisis is on the forefront of everyone’s mind. Yet, while America has been focused on the national debt, The Obama administration has been using the EPA to go behind Congress’s back and implement the president’s radical environmental policy.   The EPA is in the process of creating a series of unnecessary “train wreck” environmental regulations, which will impose hundreds of billions of dollars of costs on the economy.  Most of the upcoming regulations specifically target American energy production, especially coal generated electricity, and will place huge compliance costs on power plants, which will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity prices. Furthermore, many plants will not be able to meet the new stringent standards and will be forced out of business, pushing up unemployment and driving energy prices even higher.

The EPA train wreck has already begun. On July 6 the EPA finalized cross state air transport rules, which will make next to no difference in air quality yet will cost the economy billions of dollars in higher energy prices. The EPA plans to follow up the July 6 regulations with new draconian limits on mercury, ozone, particulate matter, and other common industrial emissions. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; altogether the EPA is completing and finalizing 30 major regulations and 170 major policy rules. Fortunately there are several bills in Congress designed to slow the EPA’s agenda, including an appropriations bill which would defund the EPA’s ability to enforce many proposed regulations.  Congress needs to take a serious look at the economic train wreck leaving the EPA’s station.

Read the new Capitol Comment by FreedomWorks for more information: http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/end-of-the-line