Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval by the Senate to stop the EPA’s proposed “finding” that it has virtually unlimited authority to regulate every niche and crevice of the U.S. economy against global warming is slated for a vote later this week and odds are favorable for its passage despite the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
So the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops in trying to defeat the Murkowski measure. Yesterday, for example, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson let loose on Huffington Post with a barrage of accusations notable even by Washington standards for baselessness.
After repeatedly invoking the Deepwater Horizon tragedy as evidence in support of EPA’s present policies, Jackson added these two graphs:
“That is why it is surprising to learn that on June 10, the Senate will vote on legislation that would take us back to the same old failed policies and increase America’s oil dependence by billions of barrels. Senator Lisa Murkowski, with strong support from big oil companies and their lobbyists, has proposed a resolution that would drastically weaken our nation’s historic effort to increase fuel savings, save consumers money and cut oil consumption from American cars and trucks.
“Senator Murkowski’s resolution would take away EPA’s ability to protect the health and welfare of Americans from greenhouse gas pollution. The resolution would ignore and override scientific findings and allow big oil companies, big refineries and others to continue to pollute without any oversight or consequence. It would also gut EPA’s authority in the clean cars program, a program that would help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and cut down on air pollution.”
Jackson knows full well that not a single sentence in either of those two graphs is even remotely accurate. In fact, they may well rank among the most intellectually dishonest statements ever issued by an EPA Administrator.
So, Murkowski hit back hard today, saying:
“The administration and opponents of the disapproval resolution know they’re losing the argument about the costs of EPA climate regulations. They’ve trotted out one red herring after another, but trying to link this bipartisan measure to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sets a new low,” Murkowski said.
“There is nothing in my resolution that negates fuel economy gains or makes our country more dependent on oil. Falsely linking this effort to the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico is an insult to those impacted by the spill and to the hundreds of stakeholders that are concerned about the economic consequences of EPA’s climate regulations.
“Farmers, manufacturers, small business owners, and Americans from every corner of the country have weighed in to express their support for this resolution. To suggest they are somehow tools of the oil industry for speaking out against the EPA’s regulatory overreach is cynical and categorically untrue.”
“The EPA’s endangerment finding does nothing to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico, ensure that impacted victims receive timely compensation for damages or prevent future spills. To suggest otherwise is opportunistic and it cheapens the ongoing tragedy while deflecting attention from the government’s lackluster response. The only similarity I see between the oil spill and the EPA’s climate regulations is that both are unmitigated disasters. The difference, of course, is that it’s not too late for Congress to stop the EPA’s regulations.”
