Political Quotes

“I rise today to speak about the economic effect of regulations coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency on the energy sector and particularly on fossil fuels and coal. The State of Wyoming is the largest coal-producing State in the Nation. Coal represents almost 40 percent of our share of electricity generation across the United States. It is abundant, it is affordable, it is stockpileable, it can be clean, and it shouldn't be replaced through regulatory actions. But this administration continues to try to regulate coal out of existence. In 2012, the EPA finalized a standard that requires a strict reduction in air emissions from electric-generating utilities. It is known as the mercury and air toxic standards rule. Like many of the rules coming from the EPA, the costs of this regulation are great and the benefits are very limited. EPA estimates the rule will create between $500,000 and $6 million in benefits. That sounds like a lot of money. But related to the mercury reductions, the cost is $10 billion annually--$10 billion annually--for a return of $500,000 to $6 million. That is a pretty big range. It indicates there probably isn't a lot of calculation into how that came into being or much transparency so we can see how that came about. The $10 billion annual cost will be to consumers of electricity. Those are costs that aren't allowed to be recouped. Now, many of those have already been put in place.…”