Bond PROPOSES AMENDMENTS TO BLOCK BACKDOOR EPA REGULATIONS

Senator Submits Provisions to Protect Family Farms and Small Businesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kit Bond today introduced a pair of amendments to protect farmers, families and workers from backdoor attempts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose new carbon dioxide regulations.

           “These amendments will shutout new job-killing energy taxes proposed by cap-and-trade advocates, who are trying to push their agenda through the backdoor with EPA regulations,” said Bond. “As communities across the country continue to suffer from this economic downturn, it is critical that we protect workers and families from backdoor job-killing and energy tax-raising regulations.”

With climate change legislation stalled in the Senate, there is a growing fear that the Obama Administration will use backdoor tactics or EPA requirements to impose burdensome carbon emission penalties.  These penalties will affect many small businesses and organizations including local bakeries, livestock and dairy operations, schools, hospitals, and apartment and commercial buildings.  Earlier this spring, the Obama Administration started the regulatory process that will cap carbon emissions. 

Bond’s first amendment will protect farmers by preventing EPA officials from imposing new regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions that increase fertilizer and farming fuel costs.  His second amendment will protect workers by preventing the EPA from imposing new regulations to limit carbon dioxide if they result in significant job loss in manufacturing- or coal-dependent regions of the country, such as the Midwest, South and Great Plains.  Both provisions amend the Fiscal Year 2010 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill, which the Senate is currently debating. 

Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals to cut carbon emissions would raise energy prices and eliminate jobs in energy-intensive industrial sectors such as manufacturing, auto assembly, steel, aluminum, plastics, chemicals, glass, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals.  After factoring in green jobs growth, many experts predict that the U.S. House-passed Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation will eliminate 2.4 million net U.S. jobs.  A recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers found that Waxman-Markey will eliminate up to 59,000 jobs in Missouri by 2030 and cut the household income of Missouri families by $1,300 per year.  Bond emphasizes that this is due in part to higher electricity prices that President Obama admitted “would necessarily skyrocket” under cap-and-trade legislation. 

Bond stresses that cutting carbon emissions and clean energy solutions are important, but insists that Congress should not pass proposals that will cut family budgets and workers’ jobs. He supports many actions that will cut carbon emissions without imposing energy taxes or killing jobs.  Bond is a strong supporter of zero-carbon nuclear power, lower-carbon biofuels, hybrid, plug-in and electric car and truck technology, technology to clean coal emissions, and wind and solar power where it makes economic sense.