EPA's Regulatory Trainwreck

The EPA's Regulatory Trainwreck is a campaign of the American Legislative Exchange Council aimed at rolling back and dismantling environmental regulation. If the campaign is successful, it would benefit many of ALEC's corporate members

Presentations
On December 2, 2010, at ALEC's States and Nation Policy Summit, Peter Glaser of Troutman Sanders LLP law firm and Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce led a workshop called "EPA's Regulatory Assault: Higher Prices, Fewer Jobs, and Less Energy." Presentations were as follows:
 * Peter Glaser, Troutman Sanders LLP: "The EPA’s Regulatory Cascade: What Can State Legislatures Do?" (View it here.)
 * Paul Cicio, Industrial Energy Consumers of America: "EPA Regulations – Higher Costs and Uncertainty on Manufacturing Competitiveness and Jobs"
 * Harry Alford, National Black Chamber of Commerce: "The Impact on Minority Owned Businesses" (View it here.)

Bills and Resolutions Proposed and Passed
A number of states have taken action in favor of ALEC's position on the environment and environmental regulation. ALEC's website lists the following bills and resolutions:


 * Alabama House Joint Resolution 197 (adopted 4/14/11)
 * Alaska House Joint Resolution 22
 * Florida House Memorial 1375
 * Florida Senate Resolution 1260
 * Illinois House Resolution 265
 * Illinois Senate Resolution 171
 * Indiana House Resolution 13 (adopted 1/24/11)
 * Indiana Senate Resolution 39 (adopted 4/5/11)
 * Iowa House Resolution 52 (adopted 5/6/11)
 * Iowa House Study Bill 61
 * Kansas House Resolution 6008 (adopted 3/28/11)
 * Kentucky Senate Resolution 116 (adopted 3/3/11)
 * Kentucky House Concurrent Resolution 126
 * Michigan House Resolution 19 (adopted 3/2/11)
 * Michigan Senate Resolution 10 (adopted 2/24/11)
 * Minnesota Senate File 322
 * Missouri House Concurrent Resolution 42 (adopted 5/11/11)
 * Missouri Senate Concurrent Resolution 13
 * Montana Senate Joint Resolution 10 (adopted 4/1/11)
 * North Dakota House Concurrent Resolution 3028 (adopted 3/28/11)
 * Ohio House Concurrent Resolution 15
 * Oklahoma Senate Concurrent Resolution 13
 * Pennsylvania House Resolution 87 (adopted 5/3/11)
 * Pennsylvania House Resolution 233
 * Texas House Concurrent Resolution 66
 * Texas Senate Concurrent Resolution 20
 * Utah House Joint Resolution 19 (adopted 3/2/11)
 * Virginia Senate Resolution 29
 * Virginia House Resolution 72 (adopted 2/23/11)
 * Wyoming Senate Joint Resolution 6 (adopted 2/18/11)

Organizations Joining the Campaign
After ALEC launched the campaign to brand the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases as a trainwreck, other organizations joined on board. These include FreedomWorks, the Tea Party group funded by the Koch brothers, and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. In July 2011, FreedomWorks told its members:


 * "Behind the scenes, while Washington and the United States focus on the debt crisis, President Obama’s EPA has been quietly implementing one of the most radical and costly policies of his administration. Ever since the failure of cap-and-trade, the administration has turned to the EPA to carry out its radical environmental agenda. Immediately after the 2010 election Obama was quoted saying “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way.” The EPA is in the process of completing and finalizing 30 major regulations and 170 major policy rules that would impose hundreds of billions of dollars of compliance costs on the economy, killing jobs and threatening the economic recovery.  Because of the disastrous affects that the EPA’s new regulations will have on the already struggling economy, many have taken to calling the administration’s aggressive stance the “EPA train wreck.”"

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association created a YouTube video with a train-themed song of rhyming regulations, adding their own agricultural spin on the campaign by lumping in the USDA's GIPSA Rule, a rule aimed at creating a fair environment for competition, with the EPA's environmental regulation.

Sourcewatch resources

 * American Legislative Exchange Council
 * "EPA's Regulatory Trainwreck: Strategies for State Legislators," American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011.
 * FreedomWorks
 * National Cattlemen's Beef Association

External resources

 * EPA's Regulatory Trainwreck website
 * Stop the Trainwreck
 * Regulatory Trainwreck Video, AgWired, July 20, 2011.