Did you know that Al Gore is fat?

Right wingnut republicans in the General Assembly are, of course, spending as much time on posturing as they can at the expense of actually working on job creation initiatives. This past week:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

House Concurrent Resolution No. 42

96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES FUNDERBURK (Sponsor), BARNES, FISHER, BAHR AND KOENIG (Co-sponsors).

1644L.01I

WHEREAS, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed or is proposing numerous new regulations, particularly in the area of air quality and regulation of greenhouse gases, that are likely to have major effects on the economy, jobs, and the competitiveness of the United States in worldwide markets; and

WHEREAS, EPA’s regulatory activity as to air quality and greenhouse gases has numerous and overlapping requirements and may have a potentially devastating consequence on the economy; and

WHEREAS, concern is growing that, with Cap-and-Trade legislation having failed in the United States Congress, EPA is attempting to obtain the same results through the adoption of regulations; and

WHEREAS, EPA over-regulation is driving jobs and industry out of the United States; and

WHEREAS, neither EPA nor the Administration has undertaken any comprehensive study of what the cumulative effect that the new regulatory activity will have on the economy, jobs, and competitiveness; and

WHEREAS, EPA has not performed any comprehensive study of what the environmental benefits of its greenhouse gas regulation will be in terms of impacts on global climate; and

WHEREAS, state agencies are routinely required to identify the costs of their regulations and to justify those costs in light of the benefits; and

WHEREAS, since EPA has identified “taking action on climate change and improving air quality” as its first strategic goal for the 2011-15 time period, EPA should be required to identify the specific actions it intends to take to achieve these goals and to assess the total cost of all these actions together; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri General Assembly supports continuing improvements in the quality of the nation’s air and believes that such improvements can be made in a sensible fashion without damaging the economy so long as there is a full understanding of the cost of the regulation at issue; and

WHEREAS, the primary goal of government at the present time must be to promote economic recovery and to foster a stable and predictable business environment that will lead to the creation of jobs; and

WHEREAS, public health and welfare will suffer without significant new job creation and economic improvement, because people with good jobs are better able to take care of themselves and their families than the unemployed and because environmental improvement is only possible in a society that generates wealth:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-sixth General Assembly, First Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby urge the United States Congress to:

           (1) Adopt legislation prohibiting EPA, by any means necessary, from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, including defunding EPA greenhouse gas regulatory activities, if necessary;

           (2) Impose a moratorium on promulgation of any new air quality regulation by EPA, by any means necessary, except to directly address an imminent health or environmental emergency, for a period of at least two years, including defunding EPA air quality regulatory activities; and

           (3) Require the Administration to undertake a study identifying all regulatory activity the EPA intends to undertake in furtherance of its goal of “taking action on climate change and improving air quality” and specifying the cumulative effect of all of these regulations on the economy, jobs, and the economic competitiveness of the United States. The study should be a multi-agency study drawing on the expertise both of EPA and of agencies and departments having expertise in and responsibility for the economy and the electric system and should provide an objective cost-benefit analysis of all the EPA’s current and planned regulation together; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for the President of the United States; the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives and Senate; Lisa P. Jackson, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation.

Cough, cough.

“…defunding EPA air quality regulatory activities…”

Really? The Environmental Protection Agency is evil and corporations are looking out for our best interests? That makes sense since deregulation and hamstringing regulatory agencies worked out so well for the investment and mortgage banking industries.