CSE Blasts President’s Embrace of EPA Standards; Urges Congress To Order Delay in Rules’ Issuance

Statement by Paul Beckner

President, Citizens for a Sound Economy

“The chief beneficiaries of the president’s decision will be those who make their living promoting junk science, government bureaucrats who need to justify their existence, and lawyers chasing after the windfalls of environmental litigation.

“In making his decision, the president fell for faulty science, turned a deaf ear to thousands of local and state elected officials, and ignored a majority of voices within his own administration who questioned the need for these standards.

“The EPA won the first round of this battle by misleading the American people and the Congress about both the cost and benefits of these standards. In the interest of truth, we call on the Administration to make public the secret data that the EPA has long claimed justifies its proposal.

“We also urge Congress to begin action immediately to delay issuance of the proposed standards, reaffirm the current air quality standards that have yet to be fully implemented, and instruct the EPA to undertake a new five-year research effort with the results to be subjected to a thorough and independent review.”