Today, Americans for Tax Reform sent the following letter to all members of the Senate urging them to join Sen. Murkowski and 41 other members in opposing the EPA's regulation of carbon.

The full letter is below or click here for the PDF.

Dear Senator:

On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform, and millions of taxpayers nationwide, I urge you to support Senator Murkowski’s resolution (S.J.Res. 26), regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s new restrictions on carbon emitting businesses. Senator Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval is an attempt to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.    

Unable to pass greenhouse gas regulations through Congress, members of the current administration have attempted to shape American energy policy via the EPA. In a February 22, 2010 letter sent by EPA Director Lisa Jackson to Senator Rockefeller, she wrote:

“I expect that EPA will phase-in permit requirements and regulation of greenhouse gases for large stationary sources beginning in calendar year 2011... In any event, EPA does not intend to subject the smallest sources to Clean Air Act permitting for greenhouse-gas emissions any sooner than 2016.”

Unabashedly stating her intentions to begin issuing carbon permits, Lisa Jackson looks to enact controversial cap-and-trade like legislation on her own. This administrations attempt to subvert Congress, and the will of the American people, by enacting back-door carbon regulations is reprehensible. The EPA should not act as chief regulator of America’s economy, it was never intended to.

Acting as a safeguard for the American people, Senator Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval would ensure that the EPA could not overhaul America’s energy industry, and subsequently the American economy. With the American economy still sluggish and unemployment hovering around 10 percent, any carbon regulation would be disastrous.

Facing carbon regulations, energy producers would have no choice but to raise energy prices, passing the cost of EPA’s regulations to consumers. Undoubtedly, higher energy prices would result in lost productivity and jobs while reducing America’s global competitiveness. Energy taxes divert money from the most productive sectors of the American economy to less efficient energy sources. Companies considering investing in the U.S. already must weigh America’s inexplicably high corporate tax rate. Compounding an energy tax to an already high business taxes would certainly deter foreign investment – further prolonging the current downturn.  

Action against the EPA’s imminent carbon regulation is necessary. A total of 41 Republican and Democratic Senators, led by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have introduced a “resolution of disapproval” (S.J.Res. 26) that would prevent the EPA from wreaking economic havoc. The disapproval resolution needs a total of 51 votes to pass the Senate – I urge you to join them.

Onward,
 
Grover G. Norquist