Opposition to Misguided Job-killing EPA Regulations Urged

The Environmental Protection Agency wants business and individuals to pay more for electricity and reduce current supply capacity by enforcing ill-advised and disastrous proposed greenhouse gas regulations for U.S. electric generating plants.

But you can register your opposition and by doing so protect the nation’s economy against destructive job-and-income killing regulations based on an anti-business philosophy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy and the Business Council of Alabama urge all businesses and individuals for that matter to let the EPA know in no uncertain terms that higher electricity prices and smaller production capacity are simply unacceptable.

“EPA’s proposal will be a wholesale transformation of how electricity is generated, transmitted, distributed and used – ultimately limiting the sources of energy available to power American homes and businesses,” Institute President and CEO Karen Harbert said. “The magnitude and reach of this EPA proposal is unprecedented. It will impact nearly every sector of the American economy, causing job losses, increased electricity costs and a reduction in the reliability of the electric grid.”

On behalf of business, Harbert recently testified about the proposed regulations.

Ask the question, do you want you, your family, or your business to pay between 6 percent and 12 percent more per kilowatt-hour for electricity by 2020 and accept reduced electric reliability, brownouts, and blackouts, not to mention killing 187,000 direct and indirect, well-paying mineworker jobs, at a cumulative cost of $208 billion in wages and benefits over the next 20 years?

President Barack Obama told EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to institute new regulations by executive action, not laws, to reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants.

The new regulations will cost the economy billions of dollars and threaten thousands of jobs all in the name of reducing global carbon emissions by 1.3 percent, the equivalent of 13.5 days’ worth of emissions from China. It’s like a huge indirect tax and wealth redistribution touching every American, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Like electricity that seeks the path of least resistance, the price of these EPA carbon energy regulations will “ultimately flow to consumers and businesses.” 

Fortunately, the U.S. Chamber is providing a way to strongly resist. Let the overreaching EPA know that its goal to put America at a competitive disadvantage and remove billions of dollars from the pockets of hard-working businesses and employees is unacceptable.

This link provides an easy way to send your comment to the EPA. Please do so and share the link with friends and family members.

The Business Council of Alabama is the sole statewide partner in Alabama of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses of all sizes, sectors and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. The mission of the Institute for 21st Century Energy is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean.

-Dana Beyerle