“Wyoming supports improving air quality, but we need to fully understand the costs and benefits of EPA regulations before recklessly imposing them upon the states,” said ALEC Wyoming State Chair Rep. Pete Illoway.
Wyoming’s new resolution urges Congress to stop EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and draws attention to the 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 the 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 11 additional states considering similar measures in 2011 and a number of other states expected to introduce a similar resolution soon.
The EPA’s latest regulations became collectively known as the “train wreck,” for its unwieldy, overlapping requirements and 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 the 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, visit www.regulatorytrainwreck.com or www.alec.org/EPATrainWreck.
