On the recordApril 27, 2016
The things we are talking about here today really are examples of the Federal Government getting involved in things that they don't have the right to do. I think a lot of it comes from these bureaucrats that are just writing regulations that really you can't comply with, and that is basically the reason that these coal-fired power plants are going out of existence. Most of these problems have been eliminated by the work that we have done on improving our environment, and I applaud that America has made the investment before any other country in making that happen, but to regulate us to the point that businesses are going overseas and polluting the planet worse because of our policies, because if we did the stuff here, we would do it cleaner. The University of Michigan has had an environmental research station in northern Michigan in my district for the last 60, 70 years. The scientists at the University of Michigan tell me that most of the mercury that falls from the sky in Michigan comes from China and India, that we have essentially eliminated mercury as a problem in the environment from our industry here. But because we are not dealing with that problem of the Indians and the Chinese doing that, we are ignoring that and actually giving them the ability--by not having to comply with a lot of these rules, the ability to pollute the planet worse than we would if we were doing those things here.
