Disapproval of EPA Emission Standards Rule--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. I thank the Senator from Oklahoma for his leadership on this issue, for yielding the time, and I appreciate everything he has done to bring S.J. Res. 37 to the floor of the Senate.
As the father of two daughters, I want a cleaner, safer, healthier environment for their generation and for future generations. Thanks to the commonsense policies that balance economic growth with a cleaner environment, our country has made significant progress toward improving the quality of our air and water. We have made progress under Republican Presidents and we have made progress under Democratic Presidents. We have also made progress during Democratic control and Republican control of the Senate.
But what the Obama administration is doing with this regulation, and with many of the other policies that pertain to energy, is pursuing an ideologically driven agenda in which the costs far outweigh the benefits. He promised his energy plan would necessarily make electricity costs skyrocket, and his policies are clearly delivering on that promise.
A prime example of that flawed agenda is Utility MACT, which is the most expensive regulation in EPA's history, with an estimated cost of $10 billion. These are costs that will be passed on to families and small businesses across the country at a time when we are experiencing the worst economic recovery in over 60 years.
We all know the statistics. Unemployment has been at 8 percent now for 40 consecutive months. Real unemployment is above 14 percent. There are 23 million Americans who are not working today, and 5.4 million Americans have remained out of work for over a year. Despite these facts, President Obama continues to push regulations such as Utility MACT that are going to make energy more expensive and, at the same time, destroy good-paying jobs.
According to the National Economic Research Associates, Utility MACT will cost between 180,000 and 215,000 jobs by the year 2015. When including President Obama's other regulations on the electric power sector, the United States stands to lose approximately 1.65 million jobs by the year 2020. We simply cannot afford these politically driven regulations at a time when 23 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed.
Low-income and middle-class families are the ones who will be hit the hardest by the administration's actions. Families who earn less than $50,000 already spend 21 percent of their income on energy costs compared to 9 percent for those making more than $50,000. Now, thanks to the EPA's regulatory actions, those costs are going to go up an average of 6 1/2 percent and as much as 19 percent in some areas. Middle-class incomes have already fallen by over $4,300 these past 3 years, and now President Obama wants to further burden them with higher energy costs.
These higher energy costs are not some far-off projection. In many cases, these costs are already being realized. As an example, PJM, which is a regional transmission organization which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 States and the District of Columbia, in its May 2012 capacity auction reported 2-year capacity price increases of 390 percent. PJM is reporting a nearly tenfold increase in wholesale energy costs in northern Ohio. According to one of their spokespersons,
Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.
The result could cause electricity bills across the PJM region to increase by up to $130 and potentially much higher in places such as northern Ohio.
In addition to electricity rates, EPA's agenda will drive up the cost of food, transportation, fuels, and manufactured goods, as those costs get passed on across all the sectors of the economy. The end result is more pain for the middle class, slower economic growth, and fewer jobs.
The President likes to talk a lot about fairness, so I will ask my colleagues: Is it fair that unaccountable EPA bureaucrats are going to drive up utility bills by up to 19 percent? Is it fair manufacturers are going to have to pay higher energy bills rather than hire new workers? Is it fair that small towns across the Midwest are already being devastated by coal plant closings on account of regulations from the Obama administration? Is it fair that thousands of workers are going to be laid off and lose not only their paychecks but their employer-provided health care coverage as well?
For most South Dakotans and millions of hard-working taxpayers across the country, I believe the answer is that the consequences of these regulations are inherently unfair. They penalize hard-working middle-class Americans.
In the case of Utility MACT, consumers are going to pay a heavy price for President Obama's political agenda to restrict access to the abundant and affordable sources of domestic energy we possess in this country.
Most Americans believe regulations should work for consumers and not against consumers. Unfortunately, EPA bureaucrats have drafted the Utility MACT regulation in an inefficient and unworkable manner. Utility MACT's new source standards are so strict they cannot possibly be met.
According to the Institute of Clean Air Companies, the proenvironmental trade association comprising nearly 100 suppliers of air pollution equipment, Utility MACT makes it ``nearly impossible to construct new coal-fired units because financing of such units requires guarantees from equipment suppliers that all emission limits can be met.''
There has to be a better approach. S.J. Res. 37, which would force a rewrite of Utility MACT, is the only solution to address the rule's problems. It is time to rewrite Utility MACT in a manner that better balances economic growth with environmental protection.
I hope today we will have a majority of our colleagues here in the Senate who will support S.J. Res. 37. Doing so will send a strong message to the Obama administration that the Senate will not stand by and watch his regulatory agenda further hurt small businesses and middle-class families, making it more expensive and more difficult for businesses in this country to create jobs. That is the end result of this regulation. It is the end result of many of the energy policies and regulations coming out of this administration. That has to stop. We have to get Americans back to work. We have to get our economy growing again.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source