Over the first five years of the
Obama Administration, the federal government has issued
157 major regulations, costing the American people and
businesses around $73 billion per year, a recent estimate by the Heritage
Foundation found.
In response, the American people
spoke with an unwavering, unified voice on November 4 and the message to
Congressional Republicans was clear: stop Barack Obama’s radical executive
overreach and the Democrat Party that has enabled it. And that’s exactly what they intend to do.
The front lines of the
Administration’s alarmist war on coal literally hits home for the new incoming
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who during this year’s campaign
identified the his top priority in January’s new Congress to “do whatever I can
to get the EPA reined in.”
Anti-coal regulations from the EPA
has virtually eliminated the financial feasibility of establishing new
coal-fired power plants in the United States and new regulations threaten the industry
altogether, all the while the livelihoods of
thousands of energy workers hang in the balance, hundreds of years of
inexpensive, efficient potential energy won’t be used to power the next century
of American development, and needy American families, whom are already
suffering from rising energy costs directly
caused by sweeping overregulation, will bear the brunt of the cost.
There are, however, several means
for the McConnell-led Senate to accomplish rolling back Obama’s radical EPA.
All regulations from federal
agencies such as the EPA are under the direct funding and oversight of
Congress. With that power, Congress can utilize the appropriations process and
Congressional oversight to confine the EPA with funding restraints, for
example, against the carbon endangerment finding or new rules for coal power
plants set to take effect in June.
Congressional members and staffers
from both the House and Senate have stated openly that no EPA regulation is off
the negotiating table on budget talks with the White House.
The wind
production tax credit faces renewal in
January and, as a tool of Obama’s anti-coal agenda, it is an obvious target for
a crony capitalist-averse Congress to eliminate.
And perhaps most importantly,
different legislative options make the EPA’s job-killing regulations —
especially the most onerous and unpopular power plant rules — vulnerable
targets for the Republican majority. Barack Obama enters his lame duck session
already facing
close to the lowest approval numbers his Administration has seen and Republicans are showing zero willingness to spare the
President difficult decisions between passing popular, common sense bills while
not vetoing the same bill due to equally popular portions that would rein in
the EPA.
Of course, it won’t be a fast or an
easy undertaking by any means. Most likely, it won’t be until a Republican
occupies the Oval Office before true reform to collapse Obama’s radical
regulatory environment can take full shape. But understanding this, there is no
time to waste.
There are over 120 remaining major regulations (or regulations that will cost the private sector at least
$100 million annually) that Obama’s radical regulatory state is working on as
this is written, leaving an unknown amount of jobs and future productivity in
peril.
The final levee between the full damaging
power of the final wave of regulations from a lame duck (free bird?) Obama
Administration no longer facing electoral consequences is the people’s newly
elected Republican majority with a clear mandate to hold back the flood as much
as possible.
Given Senator McConnell’s profound
commitment to stopping the EPA’s overreach, this should be a battle worth
watching during the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.
Source:http://netrightdaily.com/2014/12/epa-crosshairs-new-republican-majority/
Tom Toth is a contributing editor
and the digital content director for Americans for Limited Government.
Read
more at NetRightDaily.com: http://netrightdaily.com/2014/12/epa-crosshairs-new-republican-majority/#ixzz3Kfnu5kSy
Comments
This
is huge. Our electrical power depends on 70% of our coal-fired plants. EPA regulations have closed many of these
already. They also want to disassemble
our hydro-electric dams. The longer
Congress waits, they more we will pay.
Congress needs to take carbon and ozone off the EPA list.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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