Sen. Jim Inhofe on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama's proposals to address climate change as expensive "rhetoric" that "again declares war on affordable energy."
"The future laid out by the president is one of economic stagnation, high unemployment, and an uncompetitive and uncertain economy," said the Oklahoma Republican, a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "We cannot allow this to happen."
In a speech at Georgetown University, Obama proposed limiting carbon pollution from all U.S. power plants and signaled that he would block TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada if it increased greenhouse gas emissions.
The administration's long process of studying whether to approve the Keystone pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada through the Midwest to refineries in Texas, has been attacked by business groups and Republican lawmakers.
"Unfortunately, the president has once again failed to be honest with the American people about the realities of his global warming rhetoric — and the dozens of new energy regulations he plans to shove through the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]," Inhofe said in a statement.
"Instead of forcing these costly rules on a recovering economy, we should be embracing all sources of affordable energy and pursuing technologies that allow us to use our abundant resources efficiently, cleanly, and cheaply.
"He must stop making excuses and finally approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and stop his drive to increase taxes on energy producers that threaten our production boom, which is fueling a manufacturing renaissance.
"It is a shame the president conveniently ignores the billions in immediate costs and the fact that these regulations will only discourage companies from moving production back to the United States, leaving it in China, Mexico, and other nations where the same regulations don't exist," Inhofe said.