NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY-01), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, highlighted a recent hearing entitled, “A Review of EPA’s Regulatory Activity during the Obama Administration: Energy and Industrial Sectors.” This hearing examined the cumulative effects of regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the way in which the agency is exceeding its authority as an environmental regulator.
Since 2009, President Obama’s EPA has finalized over 3,900 rules with over 100 proposed or finalized greenhouse gas related regulations. The collective costs of the regulations are in the tens of billions of dollars according to EPA’s own estimates, which will ultimately be passed on to the consumer.
During his opening statement, Chairman Whitfield emphasized the over 40 hearings he has held examining various EPA rules and proposals affecting our energy and industrial sources: “…We have seen the impacts of these rules in scores of shuttered coal power plants, the delayed and cancelled projects, and the destruction of thousands of jobs in communities dependent upon this abundant energy resource. …Our hearing record—which reflects testimony from federal officials, state energy and environmental regulators, legal experts, and economists—shows EPA’s highly controversial and continuously evolving interpretations of its statutory authorities to transform its role from that of a traditional environmental regulator to that of the nation’s ultimate energy regulator.”
Citing EPA’s aggressive regulatory agenda, Chairman Whitfield pointed to the agency’s own interpretation of its authorities under the Clean Air Act compared to the original intent of Congress: “…The agency’s new interpretation of its authorities have led to new source standards that effectively prohibit the construction of power plants in the United States that use the most advanced, commercially proven clean coal technologies—the kind being built today in Japan and around the world.” Additionally, “…The so-called Clean Power Plan would effectively place the EPA in the driver seat over the states and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in transforming how electricity is generated, transmitted, and consumed in the United States—an influence over state electricity systems never contemplated by Congress in the Clean Air Act. …Yet, this agency is pursuing these actions.”
Chairman Whitfield committed to ensuring that Congress plays a role in setting environmental energy policy while protecting jobs, the economy, and affordable electricity.