FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 CONTACT: ROBERT DILLON (202) 224-6977

FEBRUARY 22, 2009                                                or ANNE JOHNSON (202) 224-7875                                   

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today released the following statement on Democratic senators’ letter to the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the economic threat of greenhouse gas regulations:

 

“Last Friday, eight Democratic senators sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describing many of the same concerns I have been raising about that agency’s attempt to impose back-door climate regulations under the Clean Air Act.  

 

“I welcome my colleagues’ attention to this issue, and am encouraged that they share the concerns of the 41 Democratic and Republican senators who have introduced a disapproval resolution (S.J.Res.26) to halt EPA’s actions. This bipartisan measure was made necessary by the agency’s decision to finalize the endangerment finding without addressing a number of problems related to it. 

 

“Fortunately, the Congressional Review Act provides a small window of opportunity for Congress to disapprove of EPA’s finding.  The disapproval resolution remains the best opportunity for senators to weigh in, prior to EPA regulating, on whether or not they are comfortable with EPA instituting massive new regulations in the midst of the worst economic downturn in modern times. It is a simple issue: Senators either support EPA imposing these regulations without input from Congress, or they don’t.”

 

“Congress remains the appropriate body to develop climate policy. Having evaluated and pursued other options to respond to EPA’s proposed regulations in the past, I’m convinced that alternatives to the disapproval resolution will face a difficult path forward. Economically damaging regulations will be no more acceptable at some later date.      

 

“I commend my colleagues for becoming more engaged in this important issue and hope they will show their commitment by signing on as co-sponsors of the disapproval resolution. It’s time to take the threat of EPA’s command-and-control regulations off the table.”