Bill Would Put Brakes on EPA Regulations [AUDIO]

Wyoming's representative endorsed a bill in the U.S. House that would require assessment of the combined impacts of Environmental Protection Agency regulations Friday. According to a release from the office of U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, the EPA has gone too far.

Perspective of time:

"In the past 40 years, our population has grown 48 percent. Gross domestic product has increased 209 percent. And coal fueled electricity has increased by 184 percent, yet during that time, emissions from coal based electricity generation have dropped by 60 percent."

Rep. Lummis says the success doesn't benefit manufacturers.

Regulation squeeze continues:

"Despite this success, EPA is still pushing for the most expensive rules ever imposed on utilities, every single dime of which isn't paid by the utilities; it's paid by everyday Americans who use electricity, and by America's manufacturers."

Rep. Lummis said that energy costs are part of the equation.

Low-cost electricity for manufacturers:

"Raising energy costs would remove one of the few remaining advantages that U.S. manufacturing has over low-cost foreign competitors."

H.R. 2401:

· Will require an interagency committee to assess the combined impacts of recent large environmental regulations. It will analyze global economic competitiveness of the United States and the effect of regulations on electricity prices, fuel prices, employment, and the reliability of the electricity supply.

· Will assess how regulations affect consumers, small businesses, state, local and tribal governments, local and industry-specific labor markets and agriculture.

· Will delay implementation of EPA's controversial Utility MACT rule and new transport rule to ensure that the economic impacts of these two major rules in conjunction with other EPA rules are fully understood.

· Will not prevent EPA from continuing to develop regulations.

· Will not limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to protect public health and welfare in any way because the bill does nothing to halt EPA's current authority to regulate emissions.

· Will not compel any legal regulatory framework to be based upon the final analysis.