Bond PROPOSES AMENDMENTS TO BLOCK BACKDOOR EPA REGULATIONS

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.