House Subcommittee on Energy and Power to Hold Hearing on the Impact of Greenhouse Gas Regulations on Jobs

The EPA is a Job-Killing Machine, says the National Center for Public Policy Research

Washington, D.C. – In a hearing today, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power will examine the impact that EPA regulation of greenhouse gases will have on the job market.

“I applaud Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield’s effort to expose the consequences that EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions have upon the job market,” said Project 21 full-time fellow Deneen Borelli. “The EPA is taking the lead in advancing President Obama’s war on fossil fuels and the agency’s primary weapon is to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately for hardworking Americans, the cost of EPA’s action will make energy prices higher, drive jobs overseas and force more citizens to the unemployment line. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has been transformed into a job-killing machine.”

During a hearing before the same Subcommittee on February 9, Dr. Margo Thorning, chief economist at the American Council for Capital Formation, testified that EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions “will slow investment and job growth and have no significant impact on reducing global GHG emission growth.”

“Given the high unemployment rate and soaring gasoline prices, it’s unconscionable that Obama is allowing an agency under his control to add to the economic burdens of industry without any corresponding meaningful benefit to the environment,” added Deneen Borelli.

Dr. Thorning will testify at the hearing “EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulations and Their Effect on American Jobs” on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building.

“Congress needs to step up and stop EPA’s unrestrained effort to regulate our economy,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., the director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project. “The hearing will educate the public and lawmakers about the effects of EPA’s actions on job creation, and will likely provide the necessary evidence for elected officials to block the agency’s regulatory effort.”

“Our future economic prosperity depends on having a cheap and abundant supply of energy. Obama’s war on fossil fuels is really a war on the American way of life,” said Tom Borelli.

The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, and receives less than one percent of its revenue from corporate sources.

-30-



The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.