Providing for Congressional Disapproval of a Rule Submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I rise to speak in opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency's new rules on carbon dioxide, which I believe need to be rescinded.

On August 3, 2015, the EPA released its so-called Clean Power Plan. This final plan will impose a 32-percent reduction nationwide in CO2 emissions in the existing electric power sector compared with 2005 levels. This is an increase from a 30-percent reduction outlined in last year's proposed rule.

North Dakota's mandated reductions, however, far exceed those levels. The EPA originally proposed an 11-percent reduction, but then in the final rule that went from 11 percent to a 45-percent reduction. Let me repeat that. For our State, the EPA put out a proposed rule and said North Dakota has to reduce by 11 percent. Then, without reissuing a new proposed rule or anything else, EPA said in the final rule, no, it is not an 11-percent reduction in the State of North Dakota, it is a 45-percent reduction. Not only does that create real problems in real terms as far as our industry addressing that level of reduction, but I think it raises real questions as to whether EPA followed the law and regulation in promulgating the rule.

It is critical to communicate the impacts this rule will have on our State and across the country, especially in our electricity generation and mining sectors. People need to know that thousands of workers' families and communities across the country will be negatively impacted by this rule.

On September 30, 2015, I hosted a meeting with North Dakota's coal industry and regulators to meet with Janet McCabe, the EPA Assistant Administrator in charge of issuing the new carbon dioxide rule. We directly communicated our State's opposition to the rule. We also called on the EPA to provide greater flexibility by recognizing the investments and advances made by industry in reducing CO2 levels and North Dakota's unique coal and geographic resources.

As a result of the meeting, EPA officials agreed to provide flexibility for the State to submit its State implementation plan, its SIP. Essentially, instead of requiring a plan in 1 year, we will be able to provide a draft plan in 1 year, with 3 years to submit the final SIP. We also received a commitment from the EPA to send technical staff to North Dakota so that the Agency can hear firsthand from North Dakota regulators and officials about the challenges in complying with the Agency's mandate.

Also, here in the Senate, I am working with colleagues on several legislative efforts to halt and repeal this rule. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I worked to include language in the fiscal year 2016 interior and environmental funding bill to block the EPA from implementing this rule. We are working to include this priority in the fiscal year 2016 Omnibus appropriations bill that Congress will take up in the coming weeks.

I have also joined with Senator Capito of West Virginia to introduce a bipartisan bill, the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act, or the ARENA Act. This legislation would empower State Governors to protect ratepayers from increases and ensure the reliability of the electric grid. At the same time, it would prevent the EPA from mandating unproven technology or withholding highway funds from States not in compliance with the rule.

Further, I am cosponsoring the resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the new EPA regulation which we are considering on the Senate floor right now and which we will be voting on in a little more than half an hour. The Congressional Review Act, or CRA, authorizes Congress, by a majority vote, to repeal actions by a Federal agency after they are formally published and submitted to Congress.

In North Dakota, we have successfully adopted an ``all of the above'' approach to energy development, and we have demonstrated that we can utilize our natural resources to do it with better environmental stewardship. EPA's new rules on carbon dioxide neither reflects our State-led approach nor accounts for the significant investment our industry and workers have already made to improve the way electricity is generated in our State, and that is true across the country.

I encourage my colleagues to vote for Senator Capito's CRA which disapproves the EPA's carbon rule for existing electric utility sources, as well as Leader McConnell's CRA to disapprove the EPA's rule for new sources.

We can produce more energy with better environmental stewardship, but the way to do it is not by shutting down powerplants and destroying jobs as well as raising costs on hard-working families and small businesses. Instead, we need to create a business environment that will attract more investments so that the industry can develop and deploy new technologies that help us produce more energy more dependably and more cost-effectively while at the same time promote better environmental stewardship. That is the right way to do it. That is the way we are doing it in North Dakota.

Thank you, Madam President.

With that, I yield the floor.

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