Political Quotes

“Thank you. I just wanted to address a couple of issues about the EPA. I've tried to point out, very thoughtfully, that the EPA has failed really to properly address the economic impact of this proposed rule. It is critically flawed. Let me restate once again why this rule is so flawed. Because it does bring together, cobbles together, a range of different performance characteristics for different pollutants without determining if it is possible for any single cement plant to comply with these standards simultaneously. That is the problem. My distinguished colleague from California is making a point that there will be less emissions. That is true. Because there will be fewer plants. They will not be emitting anything. We expect 18 plants that may be shuttered out of the 90 in this country; tremendous capital investment for an industry critical to our basic infrastructure. These are high-paying jobs that we're talking about. We can't afford to lose that many more. That industry has become much more efficient over the years. These plants today produce far more than numerous plants would have produced years ago. I just can't emphasize enough that as we are having this great debate about the nature of the economy and jobs, that we would be willfully using regulatory agencies that we know are going to cost thousands of jobs in America, high-paying jobs. When is enough enough?”