API calls U.S. EPA's new greenhouse gas Federal Implementation Plans unprecedented and coercive, says regulations would threaten jobs, businesses

Liling Tan

WASHINGTON, D.C. , December 23, 2010 (press release) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its plans to issue Federal Implementation Plans as part of its upcoming regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. American Petroleum Institute (API) Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Howard Feldman called today’s action unprecedented and coercive:

“In unprecedented fashion, EPA is now coercing some states to relinquish their authority and is directly usurping state regulatory authority in Texas. EPA’s stationary source greenhouse gas regulations are scheduled to take effect January 2, 2011, with court review still pending, and the EPA and state programs are still works in progress.

“EPA is cramming too much in too short of a time. The administration’s focus should be job creation and economic recovery, not unnecessary and burdensome regulations that will threaten jobs and create a drag on business efforts to invest, expand and put people back to work.

“API hopes that EPA will reconsider its costly and unworkable greenhouse gas regulations. The Clean Air Act was never intended to be used to regulate stationary source greenhouse gas emissions, and elected members of Congress should chart U.S. climate change policy.”

API represents more than 450 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.5 percent of the U.S. economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

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