For Immediate Release – October 21, 2008

Americans for Prosperity Condemns Rogue Agency’s Proposed Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

WASHINGTON – Comments this week by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s senior energy advisor Jason Grumet offer a peek into the type of job-killing regulations an Obama Administration would champion to satisfy environmental extremists, the grassroots free-market group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) said today. If elected president, Sen. Obama would support proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations aimed at restricting greenhouse gas emissions as “dangerous pollutants” via manipulation of the 1990 Clean Air Act. The more than 1,000-page-long proposed regulations would affect over 30 regulatory programs and would cover an extensive list of items – from planes, trains, trucks, and farm equipment, to home lawnmowers and portable power generators.

“The EPA’s power grab is nothing short of outrageous,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “No presidential administration should support efforts by unelected bureaucrats to reach into our homes and businesses with economy-crippling regulations.”

The proposed regulations would extend the Clean Air Act into nearly every aspect of American life, and includes plans to establish “Grass Mileage Standards” for home lawnmowers, require permits for farms with as few as 25 cows, and impose speed controls on the U.S. trucking fleet. AFP is leading the grassroots campaign to oppose the proposed regulation, which has so far included op-eds, talk radio interviews, and the submission of more than 1,500 comments from average citizens for the advance notice of proposed rulemaking on the EPA regulation.

Grumet said Obama would support the limits for power plants and manufacturers. However, once the EPA has made an “endangerment finding,” enforcement of the new restrictions by EPA regulators is not “discretionary.” This means extending the regulatory reach to include a whole list of items is only a few lawsuits away for environmental extremists, said AFP.

“The cost to consumers and businesses from these regulations would be staggering – and it would be imposed without so much as a vote of Congress,” said Phillips. “Support for this regulation is nothing short of putting environmental extremism of American jobs.”

The architect of the Clean Air Act, Rep. John Dingell, has criticized the proposed regulations for exploiting the original intention of the legislation. “We are looking at the possibility of a glorious mess being visited upon this country … This is not what was intended by the Congress and by those of us who wrote the [Clean Air Act] legislation,” Dingell wrote.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

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