Yesterday, the unelected federal bureaucrats at the EPA unveiled another job-killing regulation known as Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which will cost American businesses – and ultimately consumers – almost $10 billion in new regulatory costs. Liberal United States Senator Sherrod Brown has remained noticeably silent on the new rule.
Ohio’s neighboring Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) denounced this burdensome regulation, because of the “devastating impact it will have on jobs and our economy.” Manchin has even offered the Fair Compliance Act (S. 1833) that would delay this job-killing regulation from taking effect, but Sherrod Brown has refused to support this common sense bill.
Additionally, a recent report in the Columbus Dispatch found that this new Utility MACT regulation carried with it the potential to result in a net loss of 1.4 million jobs, including 53,500 jobs in Ohio.
As the Wall Street Journal reports:
The Obama administration, eager to shore up environmental support ahead of the 2012 presidential election, moved ahead with an air-quality rule that drew swift criticism from utilities, manufacturers, and Republican lawmakers. (Ryan Tracy, EPA Sets Cuts in Plant Emissions, Wall Street Journal, 12/22/11)
Notably, this isn’t the only job-killing regulation Brown has refused to denounce, because he has yet to take a position on the EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011 (S. 1392), which would prevent these unelected bureaucrats from implementing their Boiler MACT regulation until the technology actually exists for these companies to comply with the rule. This legislation has the support of 42 U.S. Senators – including Rob Portman and 11 Democrat Senators – because it will save jobs throughout Southwest Ohio.
“Sherrod Brown’s silence reminds all Ohio voters that he’d rather stand with Barack Obama’s EPA than fight for the over 53,000 Ohio jobs that are put at risk by this regulation. Next fall, Ohioans will not forget that Sherrod Brown stood with the Obama administration’s job-killing regulations, instead of standing up for the people of Ohio,” said Ohio Republican Party spokesman Christopher Maloney.
Background Information:
THE UTILITY MACT REGULATION WILL KILL OVER 53,000 OHIO JOBS
NATIONAL ECONOMIC RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: Unfortunately, the U.S. Environmental Agency is in the process of implementing a number of costly emission-control regulations that threaten to upset that delicate balance — putting jobs at risk and driving up the cost of business at a time when our nation is struggling to recover from one of the worst economic downturns in history. … National Economic Research Associates, a firm that evaluates economic impacts for government agencies, associations and businesses, in a preliminary analysis for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity projects that Utility MACT and CSAPR will result in 1.4 million lost jobs nationally over the next nine years, including 53,500 jobs in Ohio. And that’s net job losses, because the research takes into account jobs created by the two new rules as well those that will be lost. Additionally, according to NERA, utilities’ compliance costs for the two regulations would total $17 billion annually and electricity costs in Ohio would increase by about 13 percent. (Kevin Schmidt, Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, Columbus Dispatch, 10/20/11)
