North Dakota Congressman Pomeroy tells EPA he won't back down on greenhouse gas emission regulations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Earl Pomeroy predicted Thursday that the latest move by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to unilaterally impose regulations on greenhouse gases -- a step that Pomeroy says would unfairly hurt North Dakota's energy industry -- will only give momentum to his effort to strip the agency of its authority to do so.

The EPA and U.S. Department of Transportation announced today they have finalized rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. This is the next step in the effort to regulate power plants and other similar facilities under the Clean Air Act -- even though the law was never intended to address the issue of greenhouse gases. Earlier this week the EPA announced that it would delay its plan to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants under the Clean Air Act until Jan. 2, 2011. Absent that announcement, the rule finalized today would have resulted in power plants and other large facilities being regulated starting immediately.

"We've warned the EPA time and time again that this is not the way to move forward. These new regulations are too likely to cost jobs at a time when we're trying to grow our economy and strengthen the domestic energy sector. Yet the EPA keeps moving down this wrong-headed path," Congressman Pomeroy said. "I think this move today will give new momentum to my legislation to put a stop to these regulations so the issue can be addressed by Congress, not unelected bureaucrats."

Pomeroy has introduced the Save Our Energy Jobs Act, H.R. 4396, which would stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases altogether.

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