Supporting Transparent Regulatory and Environmental Actions in Mining Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I strongly support H.R. 1644. I think it is really important that sometimes we actually talk to people who work in coal country, people who live in coal country, people who have generationally been part of coal mining.

Too often I come to this floor in America's House and I hear all these different things that are going on. If you want to talk about health, let's talk about the health of our community. Let's talk about the tens of thousands of jobs that will be lost because of more regulations.

We know that commodity prices will fluctuate. The one thing we know for sure is that regulation will not. It will forever put a price tag on this product that will make it impossible for it to compete on the open market. Yet we will sit here and we will talk about things that really aren't true, and we will say it in a manner that we say this is so bad, this product is so horrible, do you realize what it is doing? And my answer is, yes, I do. It employees tens of thousands of Americans.

These are not, by the way, Republican jobs. These are Democrat jobs for the most part. These are American jobs. These are red, white, and blue jobs. This is about a product that has been the workforce of American energy. This makes it possible for America to compete anywhere in the world because of low energy costs.

I would just ask my friends, while it may become a political issue and it may seem like it is a great talking point, you need to walk in those communities. You need to go into those schools. You need to go into those towns. You need to go into those homes. You need to go into those mines. You need to look into the faces and the eyes of the people who bring this tremendous product out of the ground and tell them what they have been doing generationally is horrible for the country. You need to tell them that the way they have been making a living, the way they have been putting a roof over the heads of their children, the way they have been putting food on the table for their kids, the way they have been putting clothes on their backs, and the way they have been preparing for their future is bad; you have acted terribly in doing this, and we need ought to spank you.

Really minor adjustments--475 modifications. That is not minor; that is major. That makes the cost of this product go off the charts. It doesn't matter that it changes anything. This is one promise the President kept.

When he was a candidate running for this office, he said: If you want to continue to make power, make electricity, by using coal-fired power plants, you can do that, but I will bankrupt you.

He has kept that promise. Promise made, promise kept. He has turned his back on over a quarter of a million people who depend on coal for their livelihood. He has turned his back on an America that is looking to take advantage of gifts that were given to us by God--natural resources.

We have not turned our back on health; we have not turned our back on the future of our children; but what we also will not do is we will not turn our back on onerous regulations that do nothing to make it better for our people.

All we are asking for is to take a really good look at this. The stream protection rule, that doesn't make sense. The Clean Power Plan didn't make sense. It makes sense to some because it will put them out of business to say: All right. Fine. We need to do this to really hurt these folks.

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. It really comes down to this. We are at a crossroads in this country. We have to present really bold visions of where we think the country should be going. We need to talk about policies that are going to make America stronger. We need to talk about policies that put Americans back to work. We need to talk about policies that the American people can look at and say: Do you know what? There is a clear difference. There is a new day coming for America. There is a new way to run the government. There is a new way to look at regulations and understand that these aren't helping; they are hurting.

I would just ask all of my colleagues very strongly to support H.R. 1644. Do the right thing for America. Forget about whether to wear a red shirt or a blue shirt. Think about the red, white, and blue that we stand for every day.

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