On the recordJune 20, 2012
I rise today to support Mr. McKinley's motion to instruct conferees to the highway transportation bill to stop the EPA from regulating coal ash as a hazardous material. Since the formation of the EPA, the EPA has looked periodically at coal ash. Most recently, they did it in 1993 and 2000 under the Clinton administration and came to the conclusion that coal ash does not warrant being regulated as a hazardous waste. The only difference between today and then is that this administration is determined to put the coal business out of business, yet America gets about 48 percent of its electricity from coal. We cannot expect to meet the demands of this Nation's electricity needs over the next 20 years without coal. If the EPA is successful in treating coal ash as a hazardous waste, which is quite radical, we know that independent analyses have shown that the costs associated with road and bridge building in America will increase by more than $100 billion over a 20-year period. And in America today, to stimulate our economy, to get our goods to market, we need to improve the infrastructure of this country. At this time in our Nation's history, with the economic problems that we have, to try to increase the cost for construction to meet the vital needs of this country is really unconscionable, particularly when there's been no causal relationship found between coal ash and health problems.
