Bill Text: MO HCR49 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Calls on Congress to disapprove the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulation and ensure that the EPA replaces it with a sensible regulation
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-05-17 - Adopted (S) - YEAS: 24 NAYS: 05 [HCR49 Detail]
Download: Missouri-2012-HCR49-Introduced.html
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
House Concurrent Resolution No. 49
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES FALLERT (Sponsor), TILLEY, BLACK AND LICHTENEGGER (Co-sponsors).
WHEREAS, on February 16, 2012, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulation for coal-fueled and oil-fueled electric generating plants; and
WHEREAS, EPA's own analyses show that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulation is the single most expensive rule ever imposed by EPA on the electric power sector at a cost of $9.6 billion per year by 2016 and a total cost of $90 billion; and
WHEREAS, billions of dollars in compliance and other costs, including the construction of new power plants to replace plants forced to retire prematurely, resulting from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulation will be passed on to residential, commercial, and industrial electricity consumers; and
WHEREAS, these unprecedented costs will increase the price of electricity and other types of energy at a time when families and businesses are struggling to cope with higher energy prices and job losses; and
WHEREAS, federal government data show that the average family in Missouri has already been forced to double its spending on energy over the past decade and that lower-income, fixed-income, and minority families in Missouri are harmed the most by higher energy prices; and
WHEREAS, the manufacturing sector nationwide has lost 5.5 million jobs since 2000, or 32% of its workforce, the sector's global competitiveness depends on affordable and reliable energy; and
WHEREAS, EPA has not provided an estimate of job losses that will be caused by the regulation, even though many analyses project that EPA regulations will cause higher energy prices and premature retirement of coal-fired power plants, resulting in financial hardship to consumers and further erosion of United States manufacturing jobs; and
WHEREAS, federal, state, and regional officials, public utility commissioners, regional electric reliability organizations, electricity generators, and manufacturing companies have expressed concerns that EPA regulations threaten the reliability of our nation's electric power grid; and
WHEREAS, coal-fueled power plants have already invested nearly $100 billion to meet clean air requirements and these investments have reduced emissions of major air pollutants by nearly 90% per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated; and
WHEREAS, the Missouri General Assembly supports improvements in air quality to protect the health of our citizens and the quality of our environment, and believes that such improvements can be made within a sensible time frame and at a reasonable cost; and
WHEREAS, the highest economic priority by federal, state, and local governments at the present time should be to support policies that stimulate economic growth and create jobs and to avoid policies that unnecessarily increase energy prices, hurt families, and cause job losses:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-sixth General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby calls on the United States Congress to adopt S.J.Res. 37, disapproving the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulation because of the unprecedented economic impacts of such regulation, and to ensure that EPA replaces it with a sensible regulation that achieves reductions in mercury emissions without unnecessary increases in energy prices, job losses, and threats to electric reliability; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation.
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