An Oklahoma senator has issued a report asserting that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has halted action or “punted” on a number of regulations so President Obama can shore up votes for his November reelection bid. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, suggests that if the federal agency authorizes about a dozen regulations next year, it will “spell doom” for jobs and the economy as a whole.
“The Obama-EPA plans to move full speed ahead to implement this agenda if President Obama wins a second term,” Inhofe notes in his report. “These rules taken together will inevitably result in the elimination of millions of American jobs, drive up the price of gas at the pump even more, impose construction bans on local communities and essentially shut down American oil, natural gas and coal production.”
Citing a few of the president’s “job killing” regulations, Inhofe contends that new EPA rules would devastate the economy in the coming years:
President Obama has spent the past year punting on a slew of job-killing EPA regulations that will destroy millions of American jobs and cause energy prices to skyrocket even more. From greenhouse gas regulations to water guidance to the tightening of the ozone standard, the Obama-EPA has delayed the implementation of rule after rule because they don’t want all those pink slips and price spikes to hit until after the election. But President Obama’s former climate czar Carol Browner was very clear about what’s in store for next year: she told several green groups not to worry because President Obama has a big green ‘to-do’ list for 2013 so they’ll get what they want. The radical environmental left may not need to worry but what about hard working Americans who will lose their jobs and be subjected to skyrocketing energy prices thanks to the Obama-EPA?
The report concludes that if activated, regulations on greenhouse gases would inflict a $300-billion to $400-billion annual burden, resulting in a notable price hike on gasoline and home heating. “The requirements are so strict they virtually eliminate coal as a fuel option for future electric power generation,” Inhofe explains. “In a thinly veiled political move, the agency has put off finalizing the proposal until after the election.”
Earlier this month, the Obama campaign responded to allegations of price-hiking and job-killing EPA regulations by claiming the president has doubled fuel-efficiency standards so vehicles “will go farther on a gallon of gas, helped double our production of job-creating clean wind and solar energies and has championed an all-of-the-above American energy strategy.” Obama affirmed in the second presidential debate that he believes domestic energy production must continue to increase, but that we must also invest in new energy sources, such as wind, solar, and biofuels.
However, Carol Browner, now Obama’s head campaign advocate, recently assured the environmental community that Obama has big plans to curb domestic energy production and push forward his “green” agenda:
I can tell you, having spent two years in the White House with the president, that this is not a fad. The president believes deeply in these issues. At every turn he has looked at what are the tools available to him to really help build a clean energy future for this country and has been committed throughout his first four years in office, and there’s no doubt in my mind this will be a big part of his to-do list and he will remain committed in the next four years.
According to Inhofe, Obama has appeared to have drifted to the center with his political rhetoric on environmental regulations in order to appease voters who worry about rising energy prices and the overall state of the economy. But during a “second term, he’s made the commitment” to reverse his environmental policy back to his liberal base, the senator added.
“They are all jumping on him,” Inhofe continued. “All the Al Gore people, the elites, the MoveOn.orgs, saying, ‘You had control of the House and the Senate you still didn’t do it.’ And he says ‘wait until I get past this election and then I’ll do it.’”
Photo of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.): AP Images
