Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson recently blasted some industry lobbyists, saying that their "doomsday predictions" of economic effects of the agency's environmental rules on U.S. businesses are often false and exaggerated. "We are not going to fall victim to another round of trumped-up doomsday predictions," Jackson said during a symposium to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act.
Some energy lobbyists have criticized EPA for using its authority under Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases and have said the costs of complying with the rules could cripple some sectors of the industry and kill jobs.
Jackson said EPA's rules are based on solid science, pointing to an endangerment finding the agency released last year. She also reminded her audience that EPA was directed to regulate greenhouse gases by the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided in 2007 that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. She also denied claims that EPA's efforts represented a "bureaucratic power grab," which some industry representatives have claimed in urging the Congress to block the agency's efforts.
But Jackson also criticized some lobbyists for openly encouraging the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases in the most aggressive way possible, saying their goal was to make greenhouse gas rules so burdensome that it would create a backlash and force the EPA to back down. "We aren't going to fall victim to another round of trumped-up doomsday predictions," said Jackson .
"We have four decades of evidence that the choice between our environment and our economy is a false choice." She said one of EPA's guiding principles in establishing rules based on the Clean Air Act is to "set the standards that make the most sense" and not burden small businesses.
