Barrasso Highlights Amendment to Halt New Job-Crushing EPA Carbon Regulations and Calls on President Obama to Immediately Approve Keystone XL Pipeline.
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke about his amendment to stop President Obama from going around Congress to impose new job-crushing carbon regulations that will increase energy bills for American families. He also spoke about the need to immediately move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline—a job rich energy project that has been stalled for five years by the Obama Administration.
Excerpts of his remarks:
“Today I rise to talk about an amendment that I’ve filed to the energy efficiency bill that we’re debating today on the Floor.
“This amendment would stop President Obama’s attempt to impose a massive increase to the national energy bill—it will affect all Americans. Because in a sense, essentially what we have is a huge energy tax caused by government regulations.
“My amendment blocks the issuance of new carbon pollution standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants.
“Those standards are due out from the Environmental Protection Agency this very week, and they can do great harm to the American economy and to American families.
“We need to make America’s energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can.
“Everyone knows that.
“It’s important though, that we do that without hurting our economy, and without costing thousands of middle class jobs.
“The American people – through their elected representatives in Congress – have rejected, have rejected President Obama’s reckless energy policies in the past.
“So this past June, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the EPA to issue carbon pollution standard regulations.
“My amendment would require the approval of Congress for any regulations causing increases of our national energy bill, just like the one the EPA would create with these regulations.
“If these regulations are allowed to take effect, they will increase energy costs for the people who can bear the burden the least – seniors, low-income families, small businesses.
“High energy costs will destroy thousands of jobs in places like my home state of Wyoming, but also in Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Montana, many other states.
“We’ve already seen coal-fired power plants shut down and reduce capacity – putting many people out of work.
“That’s been the President’s plan all along, and these new regulations would just be the latest step.
“Remember, President Obama said that under his plan, he said electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.
“Skyrocket – that’s his word, not mine.
“He said that energy producers could still build coal fired power plants, but that the cost would be so high, he said, that it would bankrupt them.
“The President should be looking for ways to help businesses grow, to help create jobs, not pushing his regulations to find backdoor ways to bankrupt them.
“My amendment accomplishes a number of goals, beginning with protecting American jobs.
“That’s been our focus in this difficult economy.
“The nation’s recession ended more than four years ago.
“We have not had the recovery though that we should have had—because the President’s policies have failed.
“The President promised he had a plan to create so-called green jobs.
“People have seen that those green jobs never materialized – and now the President is going after the red, white, and blue jobs that continue to power our country.
“The Obama Administration, and its allies in the fringe environmental movement, say that we need to get rid of these jobs to make way for new ones.
“They say that coal miners and power plant workers should fade into history along with the men and women who built stage coaches and telegraphs, and record players.
“Their idea is that if we simply let coal die, those folks can start making something new.
“Well, that kind of thinking is a luxury that a lot of Americans don’t want and can’t afford.
“When excessive Washington red tape crushes a coal mine or a coal fired power plant in a small community, those jobs aren’t the only ones that go.
“That town loses its revenue base.
“That hurts its public schools, its police, its fire departments, senior busing services for those who can’t drive.
“Everything that town does to serve its people, all of that suffers because of a decisions made by this administration in Washington, D.C.
“Before long, people start to move away, looking for a better chance somewhere else.
“Small businesses don’t have enough customers, so they shut down—the town withers away.
“When Washington uses the heavy hand of excessive regulation, there’s a whole host of ways it hurts American communities.
“One of those ways is its impact on public health.
“Studies consistently show that unemployment increases the likelihood of illness, hospital visits, and premature death.
“Families where a parent is out of work are more likely to fall into poverty.
“Children in poor families are four times as likely as other children to be in fair or poor health.
“The bureaucrats at the EPA can shake their Magic Eight Ball to predict health impacts of carbon pollution on virtual people, who haven’t been born yet, years into the future.
“But, if their predictions are wrong, which I suspect they are, well they’ll just simply shake their Magic Eight Ball again.
“Meanwhile, the health effects caused by their excessive regulation are very, very real—for real families, real children, real seniors.
“So my amendment addresses this public health issue – it does it by preventing this massive unemployment that would result from new red tape and higher energy costs.
“Finally, my amendment is clear that Congress should act on an affordable energy plan.
“And nothing in my amendment says that Congress shouldn’t work with state and local governments to protect communities from severe weather events where lives are at stake.
“My amendment is clear that these kinds of decisions should be for Congress to make, not for the President to make on his own.
“That’s true whether the President is a Democrat or a Republican.
“So I hope to get a vote on my amendment, to ensure that the Obama Administration does not impose an increase in our national energy bill on the American people.
Keystone XL Pipeline
“Along the same lines, I also want to speak briefly today about another opportunity we have to ensure a stronger energy future for our country.
“This week we’ll mark an anniversary that I hope will spur the American people to demand some action from the Obama Administration.
“Five years ago—five full years ago, TransCanada first applied for permission to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Five years – President Obama still can’t make up his mind to approve that permit.
“He dithers, he delays, he makes excuses.
“It is time to act.
“It’s time, finally, to approve the Keystone XL pipeline—so that America can start to get the benefits of this important energy project.
“Now, according to the State Department analysis, the pipeline’s construction could support 42,000 jobs across the country.
“The President should be grabbing any opportunity he can to help the private sector create jobs.
“Instead, he says that the jobs the Keystone XL pipeline would create are just ‘a blip relative to the need.’
“Is this how the President sees the livelihoods of 42,000 American families—just a blip?
“This is the fourth major pipeline project between Canada and the United States since 2006.
“All the others were approved—and the process took between 15 months and 28 months for each of them.
“The permit process for Keystone XL is now 60 months—and still counting.
“Well, why is it taking so long?
“In October 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her department was ‘inclined’ to approve the project.
“In July 2011, the Administration said it was ‘publicly committed to reaching a decision,’ they said, before the end of the year. That was 2011.
“The deadline came and it went.
“This past June, the President suddenly raised the bar.
“He said that the ‘net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical, ‘he said, to his decision.
“Well, we know today what those effects would be.
“Studies show that the Keystone XL pipeline would not be a substantial impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
“That’s because even if the pipeline doesn’t get built, the energy is still going to be developed. China has absolutely offered to buy the energy from Canada.
“This pipeline has the support of more than 70 percent of the American people, it has the support of major labor unions, and of every state along its route.
“A bipartisan majority in the House and 62 Senators support it.
“Still, President Obama can’t make up his mind.
“He delays his decision on this vital infrastructure project—and at the same time he’s trying to impose what amounts to a national energy tax.
“He refuses to allow a project that would create thousands of jobs—and at the same time orders regulators that would destroy thousands of jobs.
“He stalls a pipeline that would help middle class families—while he promotes a policy that would take more money out of the pockets of hardworking Americans.
“We need to improve America’s energy picture, without destroying jobs or bankrupting our country.
“Now President Obama can help do that – he can do it today – by doing two things.
“First, he should drop his plan to impose a new increase on national energy costs, and let it be debated by Congress.
“Second, he should immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
“If the President is serious about helping middle class families, he will prove it.
“If he’s not ready to join Democrats and Republicans in Congress—in making reasonable energy policies that help American families—then the Senate should act.
“Struggling middle class families are asking for our help. And it is time to give them the help they need.”
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