House Considers Bill To Stop EPA Power Grab

Washington, D.C. February 9, 2011 – A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee today will hold a hearing on critical legislation – the Energy Tax Prevention Act – to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act.

Despite the fact that global warming cap-and-trade legislation died in Congress last year and voters last November defeated key supporters of the Waxman-Markey bill in the House, the EPA is moving ahead with greenhouse gas regulations. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has admitted that Clean Air Act regulations would be less efficient and more costly than cap-and-trade.

“The real issue facing Congress is simple: who determines the content and direction of national policy – the people’s representatives or politically unaccountable bureaucrats,” said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. “Our Constitution permits only one answer to that question.”

“The Energy Tax Prevention Act is a good first step to stopping the Obama Administration’s regulatory end-run around Congress,” said Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment. “As the bill moves through Congress, the use of other statutes, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act, to impose backdoor global warming regulations will also have to be addressed.”