FreedomWorks Joins Amicus Against Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

Download a .pdf of the brief (3.7 MB)

FreedomWorks has joined an amicus brief against a Sierra Club petition demanding that EPA regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new electric power plants.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) spear-headed the effort, which is also joined by National Center for Public Policy Research, American Conservative Union, American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste, Congress of Racial Equality, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, Independent Women's Forum, National Center for Policy Analysis, National Taxpayers Union, and 60 Plus Association.

"The Sierra Club's petition is preposterous," says CEI Senior Fellow, Marlo Lewis, in a public statement. "The issue in Mass. v. EPA was whether EPA had to regulate CO2 emissions from new motor vehicles, under Section 202, a provision dealing solely with mobile source emissions. The Court specifically said it was not ordering EPA to establish new tailpipe standards, nor even that EPA had to issue or deny an endangerment finding regarding CO2, only that EPA's action or inaction must be grounded in the statute. In no way, shape, or form, did the Court tell EPA it had to regulate CO2 emissions from stationary sources, such as the Bonanza power plant."

"Two hundred and fifty tons may be a significant amount of smog- or soot-forming emissions, but it is a miniscule amount of CO2,” said Lewis. A commercial kitchen that uses natural gas for cooking, or a mid-sized office building heated with gas or oil probably emits 250 tons of CO2 annually.

"We could end up with the regulatory equivalent of a dozen Kyoto Protocols yet without Congress ever voting on it or any of the Sierra Club's allies on the Hill taking any responsibility for the administrative morass and damage to the economy," said Lewis.