ATR has sent the following letter to US Senators:
"Americans for Tax Reform urges you to vote yes on the bipartisan McConnell amendment—introduced separately as S. 482, the Energy Tax Hike Prevention Act—to the Small Business Innovation Research Act re-authorization bill. The McConnell amendment looks to return the obligation of setting America’s climate policy to Congress from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Apart from encroaching on the duties of Congress, the EPA’s policies would exacerbate America’s economic woes. If left unchecked, the EPA’s onerous regulations could:
• cost up to 1.4 million jobs by 2014 and 2.5 million by 2030
• decrease capital investment by as much as 15 percent by 2014, or more than $75 billion
• reduce Gross Domestic Product by $500 billion by 2030
• increase the cost of gasoline by 50 percent, electricity by 50 percent, and natural gas by 75 percent over the next 20 years
• reduce worker compensation by $700 per year
"If the EPA continues on its current course, unelected federal bureaucrats will continue to unilaterally dictate ruinous economic policies. We should hold President Obama to his stated commitment to reassess America’s regulatory system in the name of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. The President should be reminded that the EPA’s initiatives to regulate greenhouse gasses would raise energy prices, destroy businesses, and ship jobs overseas."