Latta calls new EPA rules ‘job killers’

VW independent/submitted information

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Ohio), member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy and Power Subcommittee, has issued the following statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of its greenhouse gas regulations for existing power plants.

“The EPA’s latest billion-dollar regulation on existing power plants is an unprecedented regulatory intrusion with far reaching consequences for the American people,” said Latta. “This regulation is another attack on low-cost, reliable energy that will cost thousands of U.S. jobs, make electricity more expensive and curb economic growth. Coupled with the EPA’s new source regulations proposed last fall, the coal industry is on a path toward early extinction. This will be especially harmful in places like Ohio where 70 percent of our power comes from coal and we’ve already lost 41 units to early retirement or conversion as a result of previous regulations.”

Last week, the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy released a report laying out the projected impacts of a preliminary version of today’s regulation on existing power plants and the proposed regulation for new power plants. That report concluded that the combined regulations for new and existing power plants would lead to a loss of 224,000 U.S. jobs on average every year through 2030. The report further concluded that electricity costs would increase by $289 billion through 2030, ultimately lowering American households’ disposable income by $586 billion. A copy of the full report can be found here.