Recent Press Releases

Washington, D.C. —  Senator John Thune today released the following statement regarding legislation introduced by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to delay the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating stationary sources of greenhouse gases for two years:

“The Obama administration and its allies in Congress have failed to advance cap-and-trade legislation, so the EPA is moving forward with a backdoor energy tax. Senator Rockefeller’s legislation is another example of the growing, bipartisan opposition to creating a new energy tax. Americans realize that these harmful EPA regulations would destroy jobs, raise energy prices, expand the government, and unfairly impact the Midwest, Mountain West, and the South. Sadly, these regulations would do little environmental good because China, India and other nations are continuing to increase their emissions.

“I appreciate that Senator Rockefeller wants a two-year timeout on EPA regulations. However, EPA’s backdoor energy tax is a bad idea today and will still be a bad idea two years from now. Thankfully for South Dakota consumers, each Senator will soon have an opportunity to vote up or down on the EPA energy tax once and for all when the Senate considers Senator Murkowski’s disapproval resolution, of which I am a cosponsor.”

The bipartisan disapproval resolution (S.J.Res.26) was introduced January 21, 2010, by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) along with 39 cosponsors, including Senator Thune. If approved by a simple majority of both the House and Senate and enacted into law, the disapproval resolution would effectively stop the EPA from moving forward with their unilateral endangerment finding which calls for the regulation of greenhouse gases.