Attorney General Todd Rokita and Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Commissioner Clint Woods are championing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to repeal burdensome and ineffective climate regulations for cars and trucks that hurt Hoosiers and the economy. These regulations, which cost Americans $54 billion annually, rest on the Obama EPA’s controversial 2009 decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Attorney General Rokita said these regulations restrict Hoosiers’ ability to access affordable, reliable vehicles and hurt Indiana’s small businesses in the manufacturing and industrial industries.
“These rules are a bureaucratic power grab that burdens hardworking Hoosiers and families with unaffordable regulations,” Rokita said. “By scrapping it, the EPA would be restoring common sense, the rule of law, and American energy independence. We fully support the rollback to restore polices that put our country back on the path to prosperity and protect Hoosier workers.”
The letter, submitted last week, argues the Obama EPA misused a statute that Congress designed in the 1960s and 1970s to tackle local problems like smog, not global warming. Recent Supreme Court decisions have made clear that EPA cannot regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases based on speculative concerns about their indirect effects on the environment.
Attorney General Rokita added that the rule’s science is shaky, relying on outdated predictions that overstate CO2’s impact. Even if the U.S. stopped all car emissions, it wouldn’t noticeably change global temperatures. Meanwhile, these rules inflate car prices by thousands, hitting low-income Hoosiers hardest and keeping older, dirtier vehicles on the road.
As Indiana’s lead environmental regulator, Commissioner Woods emphasized IDEM’s success in balancing air quality gains with economic growth.
“The U.S. EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding and its resulting greenhouse gas regulations exceed the Agency’s limited authority under the Clean Air Act and suffer from significant scientific, procedural, and legal defects,” said IDEM Commissioner Woods. “Given Indiana’s primary responsibility for air pollution control, its proven track record of improving air quality, and its bottom-up success in reducing greenhouse gases without federal overreach, IDEM strongly supports reconsidering these heavy-handed standards that impose costs on Hoosiers without delivering measurable environmental benefits.”
In July, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Indianapolis to announce the proposal on U.S. energy policy and deregulation.
Read the joint letter here.
