SF 322

as introduced - 87th Legislature (2011 - 2012) Posted on 03/14/2012 09:24am

A resolution
memorializing the United States Congress regarding the unauthorized and unscientific
regulation of carbon dioxide emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency.

WHEREAS, concern is growing that with the failure of cap-and-trade legislation in
Congress, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting to reduce
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the adoption and implementation of regulations without
congressional approval; and

WHEREAS, the EPA is proposing numerous new rules to regulate GHG emissions as
pollutants through the Clean Air Act; and

WHEREAS, the EPA has not performed any comprehensive study of the environmental
benefits of its GHG regulation in terms of impacts on global climate; and

WHEREAS, the EPA's regulatory activity of GHG has numerous and overlapping
requirements that are likely to have major negative effects on the nation's economy, jobs, and
competitiveness in worldwide markets; and

WHEREAS, neither the EPA nor the current administration has undertaken any
comprehensive study on the cumulative effect that regulating GHGs will have on the nation's
economy, jobs, and competitiveness; and

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

WHEREAS, since the EPA has identified "taking action on climate change and improving
air quality" as its first strategic goal for the time frame of 2011 to 2015, it should be required to
identify the specific actions it intends to take to achieve these goals and to assess the cumulative
effect of these actions on public health, climate change, and on the United States economy; 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 new jobs; and

WHEREAS, the public's health and welfare will suffer without significant new job creation
and economic improvement and environmental improvement is most successful in a society
that generates wealth; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it calls on the
Congress of the United States to adopt legislation prohibiting the EPA from regulating GHG
emissions without Congressional approval, including, if necessary, not funding EPA GHG
regulatory activities.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on the
Congress of the United States to impose a moratorium on the promulgation of any new GHG
regulation by the EPA for a period of at least two years, except for the need to directly address an
imminent health or environmental emergency.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on the
Congress of the United States to require the administration to carry out a study identifying all
regulatory activity that the EPA intends to undertake in furtherance of its goal of "taking action
on climate change and improving air quality" and provide an objective cost-benefit analysis and
cumulative effect that the EPA's current and planned regulation will have on global climate, public
health, the United States economy, jobs, and economic competitiveness in worldwide markets.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota expresses
its support for continuing improvements to the quality of the nation's air and declares that such
improvements can be made without damaging the economy as long as there is a full understanding
of the costs and benefits of the regulations at issue.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is
directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States,
the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United
States House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.