On the recordOctober 6, 2011
I thank the gentleman. Our legislation, H.R. 2681, provides a balanced approach to a significant problem. These new regulations put out by EPA relating to cement company regulations are unbalanced. We've had testimony after testimony from representatives of the industry that 20 percent of the U.S. cement manufacturing industry will probably close down within 2 years if these regulations remain in effect. Our legislation is very simple. It simply says to EPA, go back and within 15 months come back with a new regulation, more balanced, and give the industry 5 years to comply. If the administrator wants to give them more, he or she may do so. But this is about protecting jobs as well as about protecting health. As you know, our economy is struggling right now. The testimony shows quite clearly that if we allow these regulations to remain in effect, we're going to lose a lot more jobs. The good news is that once EPA goes back and revisits this issue, they most certainly are going to consider health benefits. They're going to do an analysis about health benefits. I might also say we've heard a lot about mercury. EPA has made it very clear that in the regulation that we're trying to postpone that they do not even consider the dollar benefit from the reduction in mercury emissions. So from their perspective, the benefits from mercury emissions were insignificant. All of the benefits come from particulate matter reductions.…
