Tim Phillips, president of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, leading a coalition of more than 15 conservative groups to the Danish capital to oppose the U.N. conference, told CNSNews.com that Obama’s climate change agenda would hurt any American economic recovery by costing small businesses more money during a time when both consumer spending and investment are down. “It’s terrible for small business,” Phillips said. “Here in Copenhagen today his EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], the lady running it [Administrator Lisa Jackson], we listened to her speak today. She was thrilled, giddy almost, and all the Europeans were applauding madly about how the EPA, finally, was going to step in and make a real difference on greenhouse gas emissions. “And when the EPA talks like that in this administration, sadly, it means that we’re going to have onerous new rules and regulations coming down the pike,” said Phillips, “and they’re going to hit small businesses hardest of all because small businesses have the least infrastructure – unlike large corporations – to be able to handle all the new mandates, rules, and regulations that come down.” Phillips added that if Obama gets his way, American businesses will have to start measuring and reporting to the government how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses they emit. He explained that such a mandate will only cost businesses money because they must devote resources to the “non-productive” activity of measuring CO2 output. On Monday the EPA announced that greenhouse gases, such as CO2, “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people,” and “are the primary driver of climate change.” In reference to the EPA declaration, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) issued a statement that, in part, read: “The Administration’s finding will lead to a wave of new regulations and bureaucracy that will wreak havoc on the American economy, destroy millions of jobs, and force consumers to pay more for electricity and gasoline. This bureaucratic nightmare is based on flawed science. “Businesses in America will actually have to start, in a very careful, close fashion, measuring and reporting to the government how much of an emissions impact they have. Think about a five- or six- or eight- or 10-person small business, or even a 14- or 20-employee small business, they’re going to have to assign someone to do all that,” Phillips told CNSNews.com. “When your workforce is only eight or 10 people, maybe 14 or 15 people, having to try to add another non-productive slot,” he said, “that’s a non-productive slot going towards compliance [with] mandates and regulations. “The reason it’s a non-productive slot is that they don’t help sell more merchandise. They don’t help get the service out to customers. They don’t bring in income,” he explained. Phillips further said that if the Obama administration attempts to restrict the emission of greenhouse gasses, energy prices would rise – a fact that could endanger or hamper small businesses as they try to survive the recession and emerge intact. “When they start trying to restrict it [greenhouse gasses], it’s going to make energy more expensive,” said Phillips. “If energy is more expensive for a small business – whether it’s a pizza delivery service having to pay higher oven and gas costs, whether it’s a dry cleaners -- they’re going to have to pass that 12, 13, 14 percent higher cost on to customers,” Phillips added. “Think about that. Across every single small business, whether it’s food, restaurants, floral shops that do delivery – you name it – it’s going to impact and drive prices up,” he said. America’s foreign competitors, led by India and China, will not let their economies become “handcuffed,” said Phillips, adding that Copenhagen’s anti-global warming plans would only hurt America’s recovery and send jobs and investment overseas. “It only makes sense. Our chief competitors like Indonesia and China and India are not going to agree to these specific emission levels the way Obama is going to agree to it,” he said. “So they’re not going to have the same handcuffs that our workers will have, [which] will give our competitors a leg up. “That’s devastating, because we need cheap, abundant energy to drive us out of this recession and back into prosperity,” said Phillips, “and instead we’re going to be doubling down on the price of energy which will be devastating.” More regulations also make America less-attractive for business, because compliance with regulation costs money, he said. “The second thing they’re doing is making them comply with an amazingly complex new set of regulations and mandates both from the EPA and from cap and trade, if that passes,” Phillips said. “They’re going to have to turn more money into compliance, which eats away at their bottom line.” Investment – the driver of economic growth – will be the final casualty as investors seek low-cost, high-return environments to invest in, Phillips said. “Investment dollars don’t really have borders any more,” he said. “And it really is a finite pool, and investment dollars really have one bottom line, and they have to have one bottom line: What’s the return on the investment?” “If the American economy is stumbling and weak and your investment is going to have to deal with thousands of pages of new federal regulations and code; if your business is going to have to pay energy costs that are 15, 18, maybe 20 percent higher; if your business is not going to know from month to month or quarter to quarter even how much energy is going to be available on this new cap and trade market, it’s going to make you wary of investing in America, said Phillips. “It’s going to make places like China and India, and emerging places as well, more attractive to you as you invest your dollars,” he added. 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