Americans for Tax Reform today released a coalition letter signed by 33 nationwide conservative or free-market organizations supporting Sen. Mitch McConnell’s work with states to contest the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP).
Last June the EPA proposed the legally precarious CPP that requires states to reduce carbon emissions but would increase electricity costs for consumers and threaten grid reliability. In a letter sent to every state, Sen. McConnell urged governors to think twice before getting their fingerprints on EPA’s proposal.
Free-market and conservative groups from across the country endorsed Sen. McConnell’s strategy, writing:
“We also agree with you that states are completely within their legal rights to “just say no” and let EPA take sole responsibility for implementing the 111(d) rule. The right of states to keep their fingerprints off what they regard as a misguided or unlawful rule is basic to the very concept of cooperative federalism.”
“It is therefore appropriate for Congress, the branch of government charged with keeping the Executive in check, to help states fully understand the obligations and consequences flowing from obscure federal regulations. After all, Congress wrote the laws the EPA is using to justify the CPP.”
Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, praised Sen. McConnell’s leadership and criticized EPA’s pressure campaign saying “EPA is asking states to do what the agency knows it cannot legally do: control carbon emissions ‘outside the fence.’” Norquist continued, “Before states submit a State Implementation Plan, governors and legislators would do well to heed Sen. McConnell’s advice and study the impacts of the Clean Power Plan while waiting for the courts to rule on the Clean Power Plan’s legality.”
The full letter can be found here.
The coalition letter was signed by:
- 60 Plus Association
- American Energy Alliance
- AmericanCommitment
- Americans for Prosperity
- Americans for Tax Reform
- Beacon Center of Tennessee
- The Bluegrass Institute
- Buckeye institute
- Caesar Rodney Institute
- The Cardinal Institute for West Virginia
- Civitas Institute
- Competitive Enterprise Institute
- Concerned Women for America
- Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
- E&E Legal
- Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
- HomeMakers for America
- Independence Institute
- Independent Women’s Forum
- Independent Women’s Voice
- I am Created Equal, Colorado
- The James Madison Institute
- The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy
- Let Freedom Ring
- Maine Heritage Policy Center
- Mississippi Center for Public Policy
- Montana Policy Institute
- National Taxpayers Union
- Public Interest Institute
- Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity
- Rio Grande Foundation
- Taxpayers Protection Alliance
- Texas Public Policy Foundation