Murkowski resolution would stop administration’s job-killing national energy tax (Sen. Mitch McConnell)

This vote is needed because of the administration’s insistence on advancing its goals by any means possible, in this case, by going around the legislative branch and imposing this massive job-killing tax on Americans through an unaccountable federal agency.

Ironically, just last year, President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson took the position that on an issue of this magnitude, which touches every corner of our economy, Congress, not the EPA, should determine how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But now that it’s clear Congress won’t pass this new national energy tax this year, the administration has shifted course and is now trying to get done through the back door what they haven’t been able to get through the front door.

Just like the cap-and-trade legislation they would replace, these EPA regulations would raise the price of everything from electricity, to gasoline, to fertilizer, to food on our supermarket shelves.

That’s why groups representing farmers, builders, manufacturers, small business owners, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are so strongly opposed to these EPA regulations, and so supportive of the Murkowski resolution to stop them.

These groups know that this backdoor move by the EPA would deal a devastating blow to an economy that’s already in rough shape. And so does the President. He had said himself that his plan would cause electricity prices for consumers to “necessarily skyrocket.”

At a time of nearly 10% unemployment, these new regulations would kill U.S. jobs.

According to one estimate, the House cap-and-trade bill would kill more than two million U.S. jobs, and put American businesses at a disadvantage to their competitors overseas.

Closer to home, these regulations would be especially devastating for states like Kentucky and other Midwestern coal states. EPA regulations resulting in dramatic energy price increases would jeopardize the livelihoods of the 17,000 miners in our state and an additional 51,000 jobs that depend on coal production and the low cost of electricity that Kentuckians enjoy.

That’s why in the last few days alone, my office has received more than 1,000 letters, emails and phone calls from Kentuckians opposed to this effort by the EPA.

A lot of Kentuckians work hard to ensure that our state’s got the lowest industrial electricity rate in the nation. And that’s something we’re proud of in Kentucky. This bill would lead to a dramatic increase in those electricity rates — punishing businesses large and small.

But the job losses wouldn’t stop there. As I indicated, this backdoor energy tax would be felt on farms as well, where increased energy and fertilizer prices would drive up costs for farmers and livestock producers, who don’t have the ability to pass these increases on.

So this would be an especially painful blow to them. And that’s why the Farm Bureau and many other farm groups oppose what the EPA is trying to do.

There are many different views in this body on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Some favor the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill, a significant portion of which, by the way, has been pushed by the oil company BP.

Many members on this side of the aisle have proposals they support as well.

But one thing we should all be able to agree on is that the worst possible outcome is for the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to unilaterally impose these job-killing regulations.

That’s why it’s my hope that, later this afternoon, we will vote to stop this blatant power grab by the administration and the EPA, and pass Senator Murkowski’s resolution to stop this backdoor national energy tax dead in its tracks.

This effort by the EPA would be devastating for jobs in an economy that needs them desperately.

It’s bad for the economy and bad for representative Democracy. It should be stopped.