Would President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency really force Americans to pay a tax on "rainwater runoff" from homes and small businesses?

You bet they would.  In fact, the EPA, under radical environmentalist Lisa Jackson, is proposing regulations to do just that. 

Take a look at the EPA's own Federal Register filing, where the EPA generally describes the initiative it's proposing:

...requirements, including design or performance standards, for stormwater discharges from, at minimum, newly developed and redeveloped sites. EPA intends to propose regulatory options that would revise the NPDES regulations and establish a comprehensive program to address stormwater discharges from newly developed and redeveloped sites and to take final action no later than November 2012. (Source)

This is bureaucratic-speak for having the EPA force cities and counties to limit stormwater runoff to levels the EPA deems acceptable.  Limiting "rainwater runoff" will mean forcing homeowners and businesses to pay new taxes in order to rein in rainwater, and that's no pun intended. 

Think about just how big-government this is.  A Washington, D.C. bureaucracy plans on forcing your local county or city to slap new taxes on you and me because this big-government bureaucracy wants to micro-manage rainwater across the entire country.  Already, several counties and cities across the United States are moving to pass new taxes and fees in anticipation of the new EPA rules, including cities in states as disparate as Florida, Ohio and Kansas.  For more details CLICK HERE

But really, this new EPA outrage is part of the pattern of the Obama Administration.  Cap-and-trade is bogged down for now in the Senate (though they'll try to bring it back this year), so the liberals try to use an un-elected bureaucracy to pass their radical agenda.  First, they declared that greenhouse gases are a "threat" to the environment and to health, so they're pushing new regulations that will in effect pass cap-and-trade without Congress having to act.  Now, they're pushing this new "rainwater runoff" tax.

Just last month, Americans for Prosperity launched a national effort to stop this big government over-reach by the EPA.  We're calling it the Regulation Reality Tour™, and we launched it in Arkansas with events across the state.  Click HERE for photos. On April 19 we will begin the second leg of our tour in Colorado, with a third leg launching in Indiana and Ohio in early May.  I hope to see you on the road as we take on Obama's EPA!

Our goal is simple: educate Americans on the threat to their freedoms and our economy from the EPA's arrogant, nutty agenda.  The EPA's head, Lisa Jackson, attended the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen where she stated her intention to "transform" the way the American economy works using her bureaucracy.  I was there in the room and heard her say it. 

EPA is such a runaway bureaucracy at this point that only Congress can stop them.  Thankfully, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has a proposal to do just that.  Murkowski has a resolution of disapproval—which would stop EPA in its tracks—that has been gathering steam, but we need your help to put her over the top.  CLICK HERE to take action and tell your senators to support S.J.Res. 26.  Make sure they know you will hold them accountable if they don't help pass Murkowski's resolution.  Any lawmakers who won't stand up to stop the EPA are complicit in the onerous regulations they are trying to pass.

Spring is here.  All things begin anew.  And that includes renewing the fight for our freedoms.

PS:  I just finished a father/son trip with my 16-year-old twin boys.  It was great fun.  On the airplane especially, my sons talked about what they wanted to do in the years to come.  Hearing them talk about their futures, I was reminded of something Ronald Reagan said – freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.  As usual, President Reagan was right.  Let's make sure we keep doing our part to ensure that our generation passes on to our children and grandchildren the same freedoms we enjoyed.

Please click here to contact your senators and tell them to stop the EPA.