EPA Offers Draconian “Guidance” for Global Warming Energy Restrictions

Washington, D.C., November 10, 2010 — The Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency finally today released its “guidance” for how power plants and oil refiners will be forced to comply with new greenhouse gas emissions regulations.

The plan drew immediate criticism from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“Even a cursory glance at the EPA guidance document makes one thing crystal clear — the permitting process to reduce or control carbon dioxide emissions is costly, complex, and time-consuming,” said Marlo Lewis, CEI Senior Fellow. “It would crush small businesses, if applied to them. However, before small businesses applaud EPA’s ‘Tailoring Rule,’ which temporarily exempts them from certain mandates, they should remember that Congress never authorized EPA to make climate change policy in the first place.

“The Tailoring Rule is an illegal solution to an administrative nightmare of EPA’s own making,” said Lewis. “Having failed to get Congress to enact cap-and-trade, the Obama Administration is using the Clean Air Act to achieve the same results: higher energy prices, lower economic growth, and jobs shipped overseas,” said Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment.

The new EPA regulations are set to go into effect on Jan. 2, 2011. Read more on the EPA Tailoring Rule Read more on global warming at Globalwarming.org.