Texas Governor Rick Perry, a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, Friday unveiled a jobs and energy independence program that calls for opening up large areas of federal land to energy exploration and would seek to dismantle the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Perry would "open several American energy fields for exploration that are currently limited," including those in the US Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, the Rocky Mountain region and the Northeastern Marcellus Shale, according to a statement on his campaign's website. "These actions will generate billions of dollars in royalty payments that will help pay down our nation's skyrocketing deficit," the statement said.
Perry would "eliminate activist regulations" under consideration by the Obama Administration, which he claimed will destroy up to 2.4 million jobs and add $127 billion in costs to electric providers and consumers.
In addition to scaling down EPA, which would also require action by Congress, Perry would remove it from regulating greenhouse gases, the statement said. The new agency would focus on "regional and cross-state issues, providing scientific research, environmental analysis and cost-comparison studies to support state environmental organizations," the statement said.
Perry would aim to "level the playing field among all energy producers...[and] phase out direct subsidies and tax credits that distort the energy marketplace," the statement said, adding that Perry wants to preserve tax incentives for research and development.
Perry said he backs TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline project that would transport Canadian oil through nine US states. The US State Department has said it will decide by the end of this year on the binational project's license application. Keystone XL would run from Hardisty, Alberta, to the US Gulf Coast refining region.
