Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
6/13/2014
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) spoke out against the Environmental Protection Agency’s new proposal to reduce emissions from existing power plants during debate on the Senate floor this week. The regulations would cost billions, Inhofe said. “If enacted, this rule is going to cause serious damage to the economy,” he said, referencing a study released prior to the announcement of the regulations. “The Chamber of Commerce last week put out a study on regulations similar to the EPA’s new greenhouse gas rules and found they will cost the economy $51 billion in lost GDP and 224,000 lost jobs each year—not just once but each year.”
The EPA’s proposal would set CO2 emissions reduction guidelines for each state and requires them to submit a plan to reach their targets. During the debate, some Democrats questioned the use of the Chamber of Commerce study to oppose the new EPA proposal, noting that the study was based on stricter regulations than what the EPA actually has proposed. “I am a little surprised [Sen. Inhofe] did that because he is not the first Republican to mention the U.S. Chamber of Commerce study,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “[House] Speaker [John] Boehner mentioned the U.S. Chamber of Commerce study too. He earned a false from PolitiFact for referencing that study. The Washington Post gave it four Pinocchios. You know Pinocchio, his nose would grow longer when he would not tell the truth. So that was a strange place to go.”
