Ed Whitfield: “A number of speakers on the other side have indicated that, if our legislation passes, new regulations relating to…”

“A number of speakers on the other side have indicated that, if our legislation passes, new regulations relating to Boiler MACT would be put off indefinitely. I would like to clarify and point out that, in section 3 on page 6 of this bill, it says: For each regulation promulgated pursuant to this legislation, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall--not ``may''--shall establish a date for compliance. So this is not being put off indefinitely. It explicitly says ``shall.'' Now, during the hearings that we've had, extensive hearings on this Boiler MACT that was adopted by the EPA in 2004, which was invalidated by the courts because of lawsuits filed by environmental groups, the typical testimony was this: EPA final rules impose unrealistic and very costly requirements that EPA has not justified by corresponding environmental and health protection from reductions of hazardous air pollutants. Just as a practical example of what I'm talking about, many universities, in order to comply with that 2004 rule, spent large sums of money. The University of Notre Dame spent $20 million to comply with that rule, which has now been invalidated, and EPA has come out with an even more stringent rule that's going to cause a lot more money to be spent. {time} 1240 So we genuinely believe that EPA has the health standards in effect that will protect our children. There's nothing in this bill that's going to change any of that.…”