The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun a war on the American standard of living. During the past couple of years, the Agency has undertaken the most expansive regulatory assault in history on the production and distribution of affordable and reliable energy. Numerous regulations, all proposed within a short timeframe, have created regulatory chaos and uncertainty, stagnating investment as the economy attempts to recover from recession. These regulations are causing the shutdown of power plants across the nation, forcing electricity generation off of coal, destroying jobs, raising energy costs, and decreasing reliability.
The two publications described below shed light on a few of the more onerous regulations that will hit all Americans in the next few years, and on some of the impacts that the nation is already experiencing.
2012 ReportEconomy Derailed: State-by-State Impacts of the EPA Regulatory Train Wreck, published in April of 2012, details the most onerous EPA regulations and their specific consequences on state economies. The report highlights the environmental quality improvements made over the past few decades, provides an exhaustive reference list of organizations and groups that oppose the EPA overreach, and makes recommendations on how state legislators can play a role in maintaining state sovereignty over environmental protection.
2011 ReportEPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators, published in February of 2011, outlines the costs of major EPA rules on the national level, tells the true story of America’s modern clean air and water successes, and outlines best practices for state legislators. The report explores more than 15 pieces of ALEC model legislation related to regulatory review and state environmental sovereignty, contains a glossary of Clean Air Act terminology, and includes responses from state environmental officials to the heavy-handed approach of EPA.
For more information about EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck, contact Todd Wynn, Director of ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, at 202.742.8542 or twynn@alec.org.
EPA Regulation Policy Guides and Updates:
Economy Derailed: State-by-State Impacts of the EPA Regulatory Train Wreck by ALEC_States
EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck by ALEC_States