Remember Congressman Cory Gardner's undressing of the EPA administrator — you remember, the YOUTUBE sensation that went viral faster than a Lindsay Lohan germ attack?
Well yesterday Gardner's assault, and similar attacks from Republicans in Congress, paid fat dividends, as the EPA announced it was delaying the release of a proposed job-killing regulation. Per the New York Times: "Facing intense opposition from Congressional Republicans and industry over a broad range of new air-quality regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it was delaying by two months the release of a proposed rule on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other major pollution sources."
The proposed new layer of regulation could cost billions of dollars and thousands of high-paying jobs, not that the EPA cares as Gardner highlighted in his EPA bureaucrat grilling. But when discussing those kind of wide-ranging economic impacts it is essential they derive from an elected body, responsive to constituent concerns, not unelected paper pushers. Yesterday's announcement is another sign that Big O is beginning to wake up to this push back from Congress.
Wondering whether elections matter? This announcement from the EPA and Ken Salazar's capitulation on his "Wild Lands" policy is proof that a single branch of government can force the President of the United States and his appointed cronies to stand down.