Letter of Support: Senator Inhofe's CRA Disapproval of EPA's Utility MACT Regulations

Dear Senator,

On behalf of the West Virginia coal industry and the 63,000 West Virginia families who depend on coal for their livelihood, I write in strong support of S.J.Res. 37. This resolution will stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from imposing what could be the most costly federal regulations in history, the onerous “Utility MACT” rules.

Under the 1996 Congressional Review Act, Congress has the authority to disapprove of overly-burdensome regulations and, as SJR 37 resolution does, order that “such rule shall have no force or effect.” There is no more appropriate time to exercise this power than now, as this administration continues to pile costly rule after costly rule onto our still-struggling economy.

West Virginia Coal Association Urges Support for Effort to Nullify EPA’s Utility MACT Rule

CHARLESTON – A Senate Resolution introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) would nullify the EPA’s Utility MACT rule, finalized this past December. Under Congressional rules, if the resolution gains 30 pledges of support from the Senate, it must be placed on the Senate Calendar for vote. With a simple majority vote by the full Senate, the resolution would overturn the MACT rule.

We urge West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller to support the Inhofe Resolution. The EPA’s Utility MACT rule is the agency’s most expensive regulation ever for power plants. It imposes steep costs to the economy and endangers hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide, with many of them right here in West Virginia.

Association of State Legislators Report Confirms WVCA Assertion that EPA has Derailed the Nation’s Economy

Group issues scathing review of Obama EPA’s record of job destruction

 

CHARLESTON – A report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – an association of state legislators – says the Obama EPA is out of control and is “creating regulatory chaos, stagnating investment … [and] destroying jobs.”

“During the past couple of years, the [EPA] has undertaken the most expansive regulatory assault in history on the production and distribution of affordable and reliable energy,” the report says. “As of 2010, EPA regulations promulgated under the Obama Administration had already surpassed the Agency’s regulatory output in the entire first term of Bill Clinton, which as a period in which the EPA had just been handed broad new powers.  With 30 major regulations and more than 170 policy rules still being finalized in the next five years, the extent of EPA’s actions could surpass its entire 40-year history of regulation.”

Please Protect West Virginia’s Working People: Support the Inhofe CRA to end the EPA’s war against coal

Dear Senator,

The EPA is trying to destroy West Virginia’s coal industry and with it the state’s economy. I am writing to ask you to help end this agency’s assault on our state and our families.

West Virginia depends on coal.

Our representatives in the House of Representatives have done their part, passing a whole series of bills that would rein in the EPA. Each has been blocked from coming to a vote in the Senate by Senate President Harry Reid.

The American Energy Initiative: What EPA's Utility MACT Rule Will Cost U.S. Consumers

On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Power continued its hearing series on the American Energy Initiative: The day of the hearing was titled: "What EPA's Utility MACT Rule Will Cost U.S. Consumers."