In celebration of this year’s Earth Day, ALEC has released a new study examining the EPA and how their regulations affect the American people. As we all have witnessed, the EPA has grown in size and has passed more regulations in the first 2 years of the Obama administration than it did during the entire first term of President Clinton’s presidency. The administration has claimed to be looking out for the people’s lives and wellbeing by putting new restrictions on various energy producing communities. With this new report from ALEC it is now clear exactly what kind of impact these regulations are having, and it’s clear that now is the time to reign in the powers of the EPA.
The report, titled, Economy Derailed: State-by-State Impacts of the EPA Regulatory Train Wreck, found that jobs are the target of many of the EPA’s regulations. Many of the new regulations from the EPA are causing power plants to shut down across the country. Additionally, these new rules are destroying jobs, raising energy costs, and decreasing the reliability of electricity. Over 100 power plants could be shut down with these pending regulations. The EPA is holding up previously approved permits for coal mining. And they are not shutting down coal plants because of their new air quality regulations. This puts 27,000 jobs at risk.
Not only are jobs being cut by these new restrictions, but they are also inadvertently increasing the costs of various energies. It has been discovered that the environment’s quality has been improving, with a decrease in emissions of mercury, carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, nitrogen oxide, particulates, fine particulates, and sulfur dioxide. Although this has been found the EPA insists on creating more regulations to fix the non-existent continuing problem with the environment. Americans can expect to see an average increase of 10.35 percent on their electricity rates. They are cutting several thousands of jobs and additionally increasing the costs you pay for these energies.
But we are not the only ones concerned with the EPA’s overreach, 32 current and former governors and lieutenant governors, 27 groups of state and local officials, 16 labor unions, 17 state legislatures, 10 state agencies, and 57 trade associations have openly voiced opposition to the ever increasing size of the EPA. Please look to the ALEC report to see how the EPA is affecting your life whether it’s putting your job in danger or increasing your electricity bills.