House Continues Repealing Job-Destroying Regulations

In August, House Republicans announced our next major jobs initiative: a series of bills to roll back the Obama administration's radical, job-crushing regulations. After identifying ten of the most damaging regulations, we've set about modifying or repealing them one by one.

In just the past several days, the House has passed bills to protect America's factories and businesses from excessive "MACT" rules. The EPA has set MACT, or “maximum achievable control technology” standards to regulate the emission of pollutants produced by a number of industries. While the purpose of these standards may be worthwhile, the EPA has gone about implementing them with no regard for the enormous compliance costs they will impose on businesses.

For example, new EPA MACT standards to regulate boilers would affect not only factories but hospitals, colleges and office buildings -- imposing billions of dollars in capital and compliance costs and jeopardizing more than 200,000 jobs. Under the regulations, the American forest and paper industry alone would see additional costs of $5-7 billion. On October 13, the House passed the EPA Regulatory Relief Act to scrap these rules and give the EPA 15 months to propose less harmful standards.

In addition to killing jobs, EPA standards for utility plants would raise electricity costs for nearly all American consumers. Affecting 1,000 of the nation's power plants, the utility regulations could increase annual electricity bills from 12 to 24 percent in many parts of the country. Jobs would be lost in a number of sectors. According to a manager of Sunflower Electric Power in
Kansas, the proposed rule will require canceling an expansion project at the plant, which would cost 2,000 construction jobs, 88 permanent jobs at the plant, and $2 billion in private investment. The House-passed Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act would prevent this. I was proud to support this bill, which was introduced by Oklahoma's John Sullivan, to delay the onerous utility standards and require a full economic analysis for a host of other EPA regulations that would cost the economy $1 billion each if implemented.

The House has also approved bills to push back against excessive rules regulating coal ash and cement -- both of which affect hundreds of thousands of jobs in multiple industries from construction to coal-fired power plants.

These excessive EPA regulations are exactly what employers have in mind when they talk about government-imposed obstacles to job creation. It is certainly important to manage these regulated materials in a safe, efficient manner. However, it is possible to protect the environment without sacrificing hundreds of thousands of jobs. At a time of 9 percent unemployment is imperative that the government not stand in the way of economic growth.