Wyoming Urges Congress to Curb EPA’s Barrage of Regulations
Wyoming Urges Congress to Curb EPA’s Barrage of Regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 22, 2011) – Wyoming is forging the path for states to withstand the recent slew of regulatory and bureaucratic restrictions from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead recently signed Senate Joint Resolution 6, which calls on the U.S. Congress to curb EPA’s aggressive air and water regulations. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) applauds the actions taken in Wyoming to resist needless federal regulations.
“Wyoming supports improving air quality,” said ALEC Wyoming State Chair Rep. Pete Illoway, “but we need to fully understand the costs and benefits of EPA regulations before recklessly imposing them upon the states.”
Wyoming’s new resolution urges Congress to stop EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and draws attention to EPA’s neglect in analyzing overall costs and benefits (a basic requirement for state environmental agencies). The resolution also calls for a multi-agency study, drawing on the expertise of EPA officials along with other trusted environment and energy agencies, to review EPA’s intended regulations and provide an objective cost-benefit analysis.
The resolution had widespread approval from both Republicans and Democrats, with 85 of the 90 legislators in both houses voting in favor. Wyoming joins Indiana in adopting this resolution, with eleven additional states considering similar measures in 2011 and a number of other states expected to introduce a similar resolution soon.
EPA’s latest regulations became collectively known as the “train wreck,” for their unwieldy, overlapping requirements and their disregard for economic consequences. In a recent publication, ALEC outlines the true costs that consumers and businesses would endure as a result of major anti-energy regulations. As the top producer of affordable fuels that power economic recovery, Wyoming is a leading voice on energy policy issues.
“There is nothing trivial about this resolution and it carries the backing of the vast majority of Wyoming’s legislators and Gov. Mead,” said Clint Woods, ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Director. “This is a fundamental matter of state sovereignty, and this is the only chance that democratically-elected officials in the Cowboy State have had to weigh-in on these economically disastrous regulations.”
ALEC continues to support the efforts of state governments resisting EPA’s train wreck regulations, and to provide strategies for legislators interested in upholding state sovereignty.
To download a free copy of EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators, please visit www.regulatorytrainwreck.com or http://www.alec.org/publications/epas-regulatory-train-wreck-2/.
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Clint Woods is Director of ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, which works with public and private sector partners to develop model legislation and promotes the mutually beneficial link between a robust economy and a healthy environment.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators, with nearly 2,000 state legislators across the nation and more than 100 alumni members in Congress. ALEC’s mission is to promote free markets, individual liberty, and federalism through its model legislation in the states.