Posted by: David Lungren David_Lungren@epw.senate.gov
Statement of Senator Inhofe on the Senate Floor:
I want to thank Senator Murkowski and Senator Thune for calling attention to the endangerment finding. I have been discussing this issue since Massachusetts v. EPA was decided back in 2007. I said then and I’ll say now: the endangerment finding will trigger a regulatory tidal wave that will destroy jobs and raise energy prices for all Americans. EPA's regulations will prevent communities from growing, freeze construction of new hospitals and stores, and raise gasoline and electricity prices.
The Senior Senator from California drafted an exemption for some sources, but her effort is flawed, for many reasons. For example, as the language is written, some farms would still face EPA’s greenhouse gas controls. The best approach here is to pass an amendment that prevents job losses and higher energy prices. The Feinstein “tailoring” approach simply doesn’t do that.
In the Environment and Public Works Committee, we are investigating the scientific and legal process behind the endangerment finding. We have already found a report by Dr. Alan Carlin, who said that EPA ignored the most current, up-to-date science of global warming in the endangerment proposal. Yesterday, Senator Barrasso and I sent a letter calling on the Agency to suspend the final endangerment rule until it responds to our investigation and our transparency requests. There is no legally imposed deadline by which the Agency must finalize endangerment. So we believe the Agency has ample time to respond to the transparency issues outlined in our letter and place the response in the record to receive public feedback.
Rep. John Dingell was right: the endangerment finding will produce a ‘glorious mess.” It’s worth nothing that the solution to this ‘glorious mess’ is not for Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation, which replaces one very bad approach with another. Congress should pass a simple, narrowly targeted bill that stops EPA in its tracks.
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