U.S. Chamber's New Assault on Regulation
Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a new report targeting permitting processes for energy projects.
In response, Tyson Slocum, Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program told Greenwire,
“A lot of the chamber’s members have become spoiled building projects in China, where people have no rights,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. “The United States is distinctly different.
“We give citizens a legal protection and constitutional right to the courts to ensure that a company’s desire to build a project does not infringe on the rights of people that are already there,” he said.
That makes projects proceed more slowly, and often at higher costs, Slocum said, but it’s balanced against protecting individuals. There are abuses, he said, but in general the system works.
“This is the chamber’s attempt to frame the debate that regulations kill jobs,” Slocum said. “That is at best a distortion and at worst a lie.”