Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Chairman, let me just mention, I congratulate my counterpart from Oklahoma (Mr. Sullivan) in bringing this forward and giving us a chance to work through this process. We both come from the beautiful State of Oklahoma. And I invite anyone to be able to come to Oklahoma and drink our water and breathe our air and see the beautiful land, but also see a very successful State in dealing with energy.

We've done hydraulic fracking in our State since 1949. And while it may be new to other States, it's not new to Oklahoma. Over 100,000 times in Oklahoma we've done hydraulic fracking. Yet I would invite you again, come drink our water, come breathe our air, come see our beautiful land.

Our State leadership has done a tremendous job in dealing with environmental quality issues, and they have done great in relationships with companies, whether that be power companies, utility companies, whether that be actual producers, whether it be service companies, through the process. It's a great model in much of the United States, if you get a chance to come and see what's going on there.

But what we're currently experiencing is this whole sense that if the Federal Government doesn't come down on Oklahoma and every other State around the United States, surely children will die. Surely people will be thrown out of work because they have these wonderful compliance jobs required by the EPA and other areas.

It's a frustration for me to be able to hear someone stand up in this Chamber and say, If those Republicans get what they want, 25,000 people will die next year because those mean Republicans are going to come and shut everyone down.

People should know, I have children that live in the State. In fact, I have a child that has asthma. If you want to talk about a dad who loves his children and who wants to see a great future for them, that's me as well. It's not as if Republicans are suddenly wanting dirty air and dirty water; we just want basic common sense in our regulations.

If every company, whether they be the energy producer or whether they be some utility, is constantly looking over their shoulder worried every day that some new restriction is going to come down on them and change their plan, they can't function. They can't go forward. They can't find investors for that business. What they're doing is very capital intensive, and if the rules change constantly and the regulations are constantly shifting, no one can really do investment, and the cost of all of our electricity goes up. The cost of every product that we buy goes up. The cost of every bit of our food goes up because we've added regulations, many of which make no sense. And they spend years and years trying to fight them in the courts just to not be shut down from doing what is best and right for the community.

I understand there are bad actors. I do. And those bad actors should suffer consequences. But to be able to say that every energy producer and every utility out there is suspect and they'll never do the right thing unless we stand over them with thousands of regulators, I think overlooks the reality of a great-hearted group of Americans scattered around the country who are doing their best to do the right thing.

Now, some would also say that these regulations aren't all that large, they're not all that expensive. They're just a bunch of small regulations. It reminds me of a friend of mine several years ago that was hiking through central Africa. And he and a guide were hiking through and he made the mistake in this particular area of swatting a bee that was one of those killer bees that we hear so much about. And as soon as that bee stung him and he swatted it, thousands of bees came down on him and began to sting him. Those bees kill, not from a single sting, but from thousands. That's what our utility companies are facing right now. It's not one little regulation; it's hundreds of them coming at them all at once, and they're trying to figure out through lawyers and through adding additional staff and compliance people, how do we manage all of these regulations coming.

This TRAIN Act does a simple thing. It begins to pull all of these regulations together and look at them in totality. I understand that you say that's just one little piece, and it's one little piece there, but let's look at them all together and be able to find out the consequences of them. Rather than have these things coming from everywhere, let's simplify the structure on it.

I urge this Chamber's support of getting some common sense back into our regulatory scheme.

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