Washington, D.C. – The Subcommittee on Environment today held a hearing titled Impact of EPA’s Clean Power Plan on States. The hearing examined the impact of EPA’s Clean Power Plan on the state level as well as implementation and associated economic and legal issues at the national level.
At least 26 states have sued EPA over the Clean Power Plan, citing an overreach of the agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act and an unlawful attempt to usurp states’ ability to regulate electrical generation systems. This past March, the Supreme Court issued a "stay" of the Clean Power Plan, which prevents the EPA from enforcing any of the rule's requirements until the lawsuits against it are fully resolved. Even so, the EPA has been moving forward with a shadow regulatory structure to implement the Clean Power Plan.
Environment Subcommittee Chairman Bridenstine (R-Okla.): “We have learned in previous hearings that these regulations are all pain with no gain. The Clean Power Plan does nothing to avert future temperature rise or prevent further sea rise. However, the economic costs to Americans will be approximately $29-$39 billion per year.
“EPA regulations should always respect the sovereignty of states, especially since it is the citizens in each state who bear the brunt of EPA’s rules. I am particularly concerned with how this rule will affect the hard-working residents of my district in the state of Oklahoma.”
Chairman Bridenstine welcomed his home state Attorney General, Mr. Scott Pruitt, who testified that the Clean Power Plan is “extraordinary in its intrusion into the sovereignty of the states.” The Committee also heard from Rice University Energy and Environment Institute Executive Director Charles McConnell who testified that EPA’s plan will cause double digit energy price increases and create hidden costs in electricity generation and transmission upgrades, all while providing no significant environmental impact.
Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas): “[EPA’s] regulations perpetrate a fraud on the American people. The so-called Clean Power Plan will cost billions of dollars, cause financial hardship for American families, and diminish the competitiveness of American employers, all with no significant benefit.
“The administration’s alarmism is not good science and intentionally misleads the American people. The president’s signed Paris pledge will increase electricity costs, ration energy and slow economic growth. It ignores good science and only seeks to advance a partisan political agenda.”
For more information about today’s hearing, including the webcast and witness testimony, visit the Committee’s website.