Arizona’s representatives are lamenting the Obama Administration’s announcement of new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “Clean Power Plan” regulations and its negative impact on Arizona businesses and consumers.
According to Rep. Paul Gosar, American families are projected to lose almost $600 billion in disposable income as a result of EPA’s “Clean Power Plant Rule”. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy, all of this economic harm and destruction for our economies will only result in a 1.8% reduction of global carbon-dioxide emissions by the year 2030.
On June 24, 2015, the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act Congressman Gosar offered an amendment to H.R. 2042, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which prevented states from being forced to comply with EPA’s Clean Power plan until after a comprehensive judicial review.
Congressman Gosar also offered an amendment to H.R. 2042 which required formal withdrawal of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan proposed rule published on June 18, 2014 and the supplemental proposed rule published on November 4, 2014. The amendment also required the EPA to consult with local governments and small businesses to commission a report on ways to further the goals of the Clean Air Act without new regulations and required legislation to be passed by Congress before any new regulations for power plants can be implemented
“Today, President Obama and his EPA minions continued their assault on jobs and affordable energy. Unfortunately, blatant overreaches and burdensome new regulations by this administration are par for the course these days. This unnecessary power grab is further evidence that the president is more concerned with appeasing extremist environmental groups than with protecting the interests of the American people,” said Congressman Paul Gosar in a statement released today.
“This new regulation will do little to nothing to lower global carbon emissions and will only embolden global competitors. By forcing this fundamentally flawed rule down the throats of energy providers and consumers, the president is threatening to extinguish millions of good paying jobs, to cause energy prices to skyrocketand to further impoverish minorities who are already struggling to make ends meet,” continued Gosar.
“Time and time again, Congress and the American people have repeatedly rejected cap-and-tax energy plans proposed by this president and his big-government allies. Yet, the Obama Administration continues its ideological war on energy and mistakenly believes the administration can regulate its way to prosperity. As a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, I am more emboldened than ever to put an end to the lawless ways of the EPA and the Obama Administration by defending commonsense policies that protect hard-working families and our nation’s energy security,” concluded Gosar.
“The Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan will have a harmful economic effect on Arizonans, especially low-income families who are least able to afford an electricity rate hikes as a result of this administrative action. In addition, small business-owners who don’t have the luxury of passing on utility-price increases will be unable to replace old equipment or hire new employees. Where businesses can pass on those costs, it will harm consumers throughout the state,” said Senator John McCain.
“The fact is, this final rule will do nothing to lower the cost of electricity and will only serve to further the Obama Administration’s ambition of killing coal power-production in the United States. To combat this bureaucratic overreach, Senator Flake and I have introduced legislation to delay compliance with the rule until lawsuits challenging its legality have been completed. Clearly, no one should believe that the ‘Clean Power Plan’ is a good-faith effort to protect public health or the environment. Rather, it is an extension of the President’s executive action strategy using his ‘pen and phone’ to unconstitutionally forge a legacy which will have a chilling impact on Arizona’s economy that has still not fully recovered from the recession of 2008,” stated McCain.
Rep. Matt Salmon issued a statement lamenting the impact on the average Americans. “As many Americans struggle to find good-paying jobs and make ends meet during this President’s protracted recession, this Administration is focused on raising the cost of just getting by. Having already failed to get his proposal through Congress during his first term, President Obama is again resorting to ‘my way or the high way’ tactics, choosing to make an end-run around Congress and rule by fiat,” stated Salmon.
“Claiming broad authority to unilaterally impose restrictions on America’s power generation that will imperil access to affordable electricity for many Americans, the President has foisted his radical environmental agenda on the people, without aiming to establish reasonable regulations within the bounds of the Clean Air Act. The American people deserve better, and I will work hard to protect them from yet another harmful executive action by this President,” said Salmon.
Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem stated, “The President owns the almost certain destruction of the American economy, that results from reckless decision-making. It’s official, today the Environmental Protection Agency (an agency the the US Supreme Court has labeled as “Unconstitutional”) ignored known engineering and scientific data and finalized President Barack Obama’s “Clean Power Plan.” The plan gives new meaning to federal overreach with the first ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants. The President deserves every bit of credit for his war-on-the-poor, who struggle to afford housing and power today. As rates increase to pay for technology that yesterday was cutting edge, but today is not good enough, the poor, elderly and all of those on federal assistance will see their standard of living diminished even further.”
Finchem continued, “Arizona power plants are the newest in the “fleet” of power generation plants in America; the most efficient plants on line today, and the EPA wants to shut them down. This is a prime example of “we’re from the government and we’re here to help.”