WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) today gave the following statement in support of S.J. Res. 23 and S.J. Res 24, legislation to block ill-advised E.P.A. carbon emission standards that would kill American jobs and raise utility costs for hard-working Americans. Both pieces of legislation passed the House and now head to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
Remarks as prepared:
“Mr. Speaker, we’re here today to reject this radical plan by President Obama’s EPA that is going to impact every power plant in this country.
“The President that has a war on coal. A war he declared years ago and today we are seeing the results of it. The results here in America are thousands of good jobs lost, thousands of middle-class families that are now unemployed and trying to fight to get back into the middle class, and millions of hard-working people paying more for electricity costs because of these radical regulations.
“What is President Obama’s answer? To go to Paris and say the biggest threat to national security is global warming. Doesn’t he see what’s happening across the world?
“We are here focusing on national security and energy security, and standing up against radical regulations that will increase costs on the most needy in this country. When you look at the impact, this proposal would inflict a $29 billion per year cost on middle-class families. The people who are going to be hit the hardest are low-income families. In Louisiana alone, nearly one million middle and low-income families will be hit by this radical regulation.
“During the Christmas season, I think families would much rather be spending their hard-earned dollars to buy Christmas presents for their families instead of on a 13 percent increase in their utilitiy bills for a regulkation that’s not even going to do anything to clean the air.
“Here in the United States we have already seen a reduction in carbon emissions because of American innovation. When European countries signed Kyoto and some of these other accords that are now wrecking their economies, we didn’t do it because we were already doing it better than them. Now, the President wants to come behind and bring a regulation that is going to strangle small businesses, strangle families’ budgets, and increase electricity costs on those who can least afford to pay for them. Let’s allow hard-working families to keep their money in their own pockets. Let’s innovate and create jobs in this economy and not use radical regulations to stifle our economy and the middle class.”