WASHINGTON, DC – US Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both R-Wyo., joined 37 Senators opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.
“The Clean Air Act was not designed to regulate a substance as prevalent as carbon dioxide. Congress cannot stand by idly as bureaucrats implement a policy that will increase energy prices and cost Americans jobs. It is high time Congress stepped in. I am proud to put my foot down in defense of small businesses and Americans to fight the bureaucratic nightmare the EPA is trying to create,” said Enzi.
“The Obama Administration continues to prove it is more interested in pushing an extreme environmental agenda than finding solutions that will help our troubled economy and create new jobs,” Barrasso said. “We will not sit back and allow the EPA to simply issue another regulation that ties the hands of small businesses, kills even more jobs, and exerts more control over Americans’ lives. We need to protect hospitals, farms, nursing homes and commercial businesses – all who could be bankrupted by the EPA’s ruling.”
Background: In early December, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) endangerment finding formally declared carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The finding places sweeping restrictions on emitters of carbon dioxide.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one-fifth of all food service businesses, one-third of all health care businesses, one-half of the entire lodging industry could be covered under the scope of the Clean Air Act.
The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to overrule regulations issued by government agencies through House and Senate passage of a resolution of disapproval.
The resolution can be discharged from the Committee with a petition signed by 30 Senators. When placed on the Senate calendar, a disapproval resolution is then subject to expedited consideration on the Senate floor, and not subject to filibuster.
