Jerry Moran: “there are 226 investor-owned power companies. They will have to abide by every single new air quality standard, even…”

“there are 226 investor-owned power companies. They will have to abide by every single new air quality standard, even though they generate 75 percent of the power in this country, whereas those municipal power plants will not have to. That is the unfair treatment we are creating. Mr. Chairman, if we enact this legislation in its present form, we are going to take a step backward, backward to a situation that is really analogous with the Articles of Confederation. From about 1781 to 1787 we gave almost complete discretion to all the States. It did not work. There had to be national standards. This says there no longer have to be national standards. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the efforts that have been made by my friends on the other side to study this legislation, but the problem is that studying it, exposing it, even understanding it, does not rectify it. This amendment rectifies it. Mr. Chairman, this amendment says that where we have Federal activities that are carried out by both the public and the private sector, we have to treat them equally; that in fact we cannot give an option to States and localities whether or not they want to comply with standards.”