On the recordFebruary 11, 2011
I want to briefly speak about the impact the overbearing Environmental Protection Agency has in my district. I want to begin by relating an anecdote that illustrates the arrogant and tone-deaf attitude the EPA has taken in its attempts to regulate almost everything that moves or breathes in Idaho's First Congressional District. In the Federal Register, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a public meeting in Boise where my constituents could come and provide oral comments. Relying upon the EPA's notice in the Federal Register, my constituents attended in order to share their thoughts with the EPA, only to be told that oral comments would not be accepted. My constituents try to do the right thing and play by the rules; but when the EPA writes the rule book in erasable or even invisible ink, my constituents become jaded and distrustful of the EPA, and they come to this body for assistance. They are done being treated unfairly by a Federal bureaucracy that no longer seems to care if it even obeys its own rules. This body must no longer tolerate such actions. We must also not tolerate the job-killing regulations that the EPA dreams to implement. Even though the current and past administrations have recognized that the Clean Air Act is not appropriate for the regulation of greenhouse gases, the EPA nonetheless has chosen to ignore those findings and treat greenhouse gases as though they endanger the public health and welfare.
