Cramer: House Energy and Commerce Committee Passes Legislation to Protect Electrical Ratepayers from EPA Overregulation

Press Release

Today, Congressman Kevin Cramer joined a majority of his colleagues on the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee to favorably report H.R. 2042, the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill he helped introduce as an original cosponsor to the whole House. This legislation protects electric consumers from the potential rate increases and reliability risks resulting from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan for existing power plants.

"The unilateral disarming of the U.S. economy by the EPA is not a good climate change strategy. The Clean Power Plan will increase family, business and industrial electricity rates which will raise the cost of everything we produce, manufacture and grow in this country, making us less competitive in the global marketplace. In addition, it puts the reliability of our electrical transmission and distribution grid in great peril with no replacement for traditional base load generation. Furthermore, this rule tramples on the constitution by forcing states to comply with emission standards arbitrarily set by the federal bureaucracy," said Cramer.

Last year, NERA Economic Consulting released a study estimating the EPA's plan would cause electricity rates to increase an average of 12% to 17% nationwide while some states could face increases over 20% and just last week the North American Electric Reliability Corporation released an assessment on the risks to reliability, warning the targets and deadlines are unachievable and forces too many changes too fast. In March, before the Energy and Commerce Committee, President Obama's constitutional law professor attacked the EPA's Clean Power Plan for its blatant disregard for the constitution.

Congressman Cramer is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He serves on the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

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