ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) called upon Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to reconsider the EPA’s costly and defective endangerment finding for alleged greenhouse gas emissions.  The EPA recently exceeded its proper authority by unilaterally declaring everyday carbon dioxide a “dangerous pollutant.”  This unwarranted and illogical determination threatens to cripple the American economy by suddenly burdening businesses and consumers with new carbon regulations and penalties. 

The EPA is now attempting to create a fig leaf by arbitrarily stating that only businesses emitting over 25,000 tons per year would be subject to its regulation.  Unfortunately, the Clean Air Act on which the EPA regulation is based explicitly regulates even low-level sources of covered emissions, and provides no statutory authority for the EPA to set its lower threshold.  As a consequence, extremist environmental groups are sure to sue the EPA to overturn its 25,000-ton limit, which would suddenly subject even minimal emitters to draconian carbon regulations. 

“At a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty throughout America, the last thing the EPA and federal regulators should be doing is imposing crippling new global warming regulations upon businesses,” said Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs.  “This may be popular in Europe and among America’s competitors and enemies, but it’s bad news for Americans. Not only is the EPA’s ruling likely to be overturned by litigious environmental activists, but it will subject millions of businesses, schools, apartment buildings and even farms to its draconian regulation,” Mr. Lee added. 

“We therefore call upon the EPA to reconsider its attempt to single-handedly regulate the American economy, if not abandon it altogether,” said Lee.  “This is not the time for even more burdensome and unnecessary burdens upon employers and businesses,” Lee concluded. 

To read CFIF's comment as it was submitted to the EPA, click here (.pdf). 

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