"The Daily Caller claimed on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency is going to have to hire 230,000 new employees just to put new climate rules in place. And then others, including Fox News, repeated it." The Daily Caller's story was not only untrue -- it was not even plausible.
"This would be kind of funny, if it weren't terrible. The Daily Caller claimed on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency is going to have to hire 230,000 new employees just to put new climate rules in place. And then others, including Fox News, repeated it, as Media Matters highlights today.
The problem is not only the fact that the number is, uh, inconceivable, given that the EPA currently only employs 17,000 people. But the story actually managed to pull that number from a court filing about what the EPA is trying to avoid. In the court filing, the EPA is defending its rule that would only limit emissions from the largest sources of greenhouse gases. The so-called 'tailoring rule' is designed to reduce the regulatory burden that setting rules for all emission sources could create, the EPA argues."
Kate Sheppard reports for Mother Jones September 27, 2011.
SEE ALSO:
"Rumors of EPA's $21B Expansion Sets Web Ablaze" (Politico)
"No, EPA Is Not Hiring 230,000 Workers To Implement Climate Rules" (Media Matters)
