Republicans to EPA: Pay for climate rules or don’t do them

{mosads}Flake, in a statement, accused the EPA of a “regulation-at-all-cost strategy that seems to strike hardest at those who are least able to afford it.”

“The legislation I’ve introduced will provide some much needed restraint by forcing the EPA to be accountable for their regulatory actions,” said Flake, who introduced the bill with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.).

The new bill marks the latest foray into climate policy by Flake, a freshman senator who previously served in the House.

As a House member, Flake co-sponsored legislation to impose a tax on carbon emissions that would be offset by other tax cuts.

But Flake has since backed off the idea, saying that the tax bill was only a tactical maneuver to undercut cap-and-trade legislation, and that he does not support a carbon tax.

A Congressional Record summary of the new Senate bill states that the EPA must “include in any proposed rule that limits greenhouse gas emissions and imposes increased costs on other Federal agencies an offset from funds available to the Administrator for all projected increased costs that the proposed rule would impose on other Federal agencies.”