Contacts:

Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-9797

David Lungren David_Lungren@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-5642

Inhofe Recounts Success in 2010, But Warns of ‘Backdoor' Cap-And-Trade at EPA

‘EPA is threatening jobs on a host of fronts'

Watch: Inhofe Floor Speech

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, delivered a Senate Floor speech today on global warming policy, warning that, despite its defeat this year in Congress, "backdoor" cap-and-trade is "alive and well" at the EPA. 

The speech recounts events over the last year that led to the defeat of the thousand-page Waxman-Markey bill in the Senate, including the failure in Copenhagen, Climategate, and the Obama Administration's admission of the futility of unilateral U.S. climate action. 

The following are excerpts from the speech:

"It was one year ago today that I gave a speech, right here on the Senate floor, noting that the tide had turned decisively against global warming alarmism. 

"Then, just two days later, Climategate exploded into view, as thousands of emails were released that showed...that the very scientific spokesmen for alarmism were scheming to block open and honest assessments of their work. 

"The damage has been done, to say the least.  And so I think the chapter on the climate science wars has closed.  Of course, Climategate scientists and their allies want to keep fighting.  They are practically begging us to bring them before committees to question their work.  But we won't -because they are irrelevant. 

"We are going to talk about jobs, and competitiveness, and manufacturing, and small businesses, and real people who will have to pay more for electricity, food, and gasoline. 

"What Sen. Reid said about cap-and-trade-that it's dead for next Congress - may be true for the massive, thousand-page bills filled with mandates, taxes, regulations, bureaucracy, and much else. 

"But it's not true for the more subtle strain of cap-and-trade now moving through the Environmental Protection Agency.   That's right: this is backdoor cap-and-trade, hidden behind an administrative curtain. 

"So we need to address this, because employers and small businesses are afraid to hire and expand in large part because of EPA's global warming regulations.  To get this economy moving again, and create jobs for those who need them, we need to stop EPA.

"I also want my colleagues to know that EPA is moving in all directions-beyond just implementing job-killing global warming regulations.  EPA is threatening jobs on a host of fronts. 

"My sincere hope is that EPA will pull back, revise, reform, and balance its regulatory agenda to protect jobs as well as the environment.   If EPA persists on moving down a more extreme path, then our 9.6 % unemployment rate won't look much better in 2012."

(Link to Full Speech)

###