“EPA’s endangerment finding puts our nation in a bind.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) joined other Senate Republicans today at a press conference on Capitol Hill regarding the Obama Administration’s attempt to circumvent Congress with a backdoor climate tax that will kill American jobs and stifle economic growth. Barrasso, the only Senator serving on both the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committees, gave the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) endangerment finding:

“My concerns are truly the jobs and the economy, and I think Senator Murkowski is absolutely right: that this endangerment finding endangers the American economy.

“I come from a state where we’re very focused on all sources of energy. Certainly, the green jobs, the renewable energy, energy efficiency — but also the red, white and blue jobs that have powered this country for the last 100 years.

“And I have concerns with this endangerment finding, because of the implications for our economy. And when I see the administration come out with this — the regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency just right before Copenhagen, it says to me this administration is much more interested in finding international applause than it is in addressing the issues of our nation and our nation’s economy and the jobs and the growth that we need here.

“I will stand with my colleague to say that no matter what is brought to the Senate, we will work to make sure that a treaty is not ratified that is going to hurt our economy and hurt jobs in this nation.

“Senator Kyl talked about the money that Secretary Clinton has promised just yesterday out of Copenhagen: that the United States is now going to provided a billion dollars in funding over the next three years for forests in foreign lands.

“And yet this is at a time when the Rocky Mountain West, including our Secretary of the Interior’s home state of Colorado, my state of Wyoming, and other states nearby are having huge forest issues, huge forest problems. And for this country to continue to put money overseas, at a time when our economy is struggling and jobs should be paramount is just wrong.

“The director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, has absolutely overstepped her bounds – she should not have done this. This is not the way that laws should be made in this country.”