Inquiries to EPA Administrator Jackson go unanswered as EPA pushes forward with endangerment strategy making employers nervous about future costs

WASHINGTON D.C. – Questioning why EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson continues to move full speed ahead on the Obama Administration’s efforts to create costly new regulations that harm efforts of small businesses to create jobs without addressing information about corrupted science and the impact on small business, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) have sent letters demanding explanations for issues that have been cast aside in a rush to implement costly new regulations.

“With unemployment rates hovering above 10%, it is unacceptable that EPA failed to evaluate the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations on small business.  As you know, small business is the key to economic growth and job creation.  In the past 15 years, small business owners were responsible for 64% of all job creation. Federal agencies have a legal responsibility to evaluate and minimize the economic burden imposed by their regulatory actions, and EPA is no exception,” wrote the members in a January 13 letter.

In a separate letter on January 14, the same four wrote to Jackson, “We are also concerned that EPA is in violation of the Data Quality Act (DQA), which was enacted to ensure the integrity of information relied upon by Federal agencies, as well as its own Peer Review Guidelines.”  The four expressed disconcertment that Jackson had not responded to an earlier request to address questions about corrupted science brought to light by e-mail disclosures from the Climatic Research Unit of East Anglia (CRU) and reminded her that, “EPA has an affirmative obligation to ensure the research it is relying on satisfies the rigorous standards of the DQA and the agency’s own Peer Review Guidelines.”

Said Rep. Darrell Issa, “The EPA’s reckless efforts to increase regulations on American small businesses are part of the reason unemployment has reached 10% under this Administration.  Employers are afraid to hire with the specter of an energy tax on the horizon.  Ignoring questions about science and the effect on small business makes it clear that EPA’s entire endangerment process has had an ideologically predetermined outcome from the moment this Administration came to office. The lack of answers from EPA is outrageous.”

Said Sen. Barrasso, “Our letters demonstrate that the EPA is ignoring two bedrock laws meant to protect small businesses, small communities and scientific integrity.  This isn’t the first time the EPA has thrown science out the window and small businesses under the bus in order to advance its liberal agenda. The EPA isn’t above the law.  Federal agencies have a legal responsibility to evaluate and minimize the economic burden imposed by their regulatory actions, and the EPA is no exception."

"By refusing to respond to a formal inquiry from members of Congress, the EPA has continued this administration's contradiction of its pledge of greater transparency and accountability," said Sen. Vitter. "Sadly, small business owners in Louisiana and across America could suffer the most because of it."

“Small business is the engine of job growth in this country, but these climate regulations will stall an economic recovery before it has a chance to get started,” Rep. Sensenbrenner said. “What’s even more disturbing is that the EPA hasn’t even looked into how these regulations will impact job growth and the economy. The EPA should slow down and look at these issues before it enacts regulations that will smother small businesses and the jobs they create.”


###