On the recordMarch 3, 2016
I will conclude my remarks over on this side. I was listening to the debate on the rule about this bill, and some people did make the comment that this was not a particularly important issue. I might say to the 7,000 people employed in this industry, to the owners of the companies, this is very important because some of them may very well lose their business, may very well lose their jobs. So we have two goals with this legislation. One is simply to say this regulation coming out of EPA needs to be considered by the courts before these companies are required to invest significant sums of money. In fact, the industry itself has said that the average plant has two kilns, and a plant with two kilns would have to spend roughly $4 million to meet the requirements of this regulation. Now, remember, in 2003, EPA came out with a regulation for this industry and, by 2006, the industry had to comply. They did comply and they reduced emissions of the regulated substance by 96 percent. We see a pattern developing at EPA. They know full well that this President would veto any legislation that changes in any way anything coming out of EPA, so the only avenue left to the regulated parties is to file a lawsuit.…
