Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 2273, the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act. Once again, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is on a path to destroy jobs, and increase costs on every American household. It is puzzling to see the EPA attempt to regulate coal combustion residuals, CCRs, as a hazardous waste, when the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Electric Power Research Institute, state agencies, members of academia, and many others who have studied CCRs for nearly three decades concluded that coal ash does not warrant regulation as a hazardous waste. Under the Clinton Administration, the EPA determined that coal ash rarely, if ever, exhibits a hazardous waste characteristic. They ultimately concluded that states can safely manage coal ash under federal non-hazardous rules. Additionally, the EPA stated in its 2000 regulatory determination that regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste would be environmentally counterproductive because it would unnecessarily stigmatize coal ash and impede its beneficial use for reducing greenhouse gases. If the EPA under the Clinton Administration concluded that moving forward with regulating CCRs as a hazardous waste would increase greenhouse gas emissions, then why are so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle supportive of the current Administration's actions?…”