10.23.15

Hoeven, Bipartisan Group of Senators to Introduce Resolutions Repealing EPA's Final Rules for New and Existing Power Plants

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, who serves on the U.S. Senate Appropriations and Energy Committees, today announced that he and a bipartisan group of senators will introduce two resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) costly new power plant rules.

One of the resolutions will seek to roll back the agency’s rule for existing plants and the second will challenge the rule governing new coal generating power plants. The rule governing new construction of coal powered plants treats North Dakota unfairly and virtually ensures that no new plants can be built.

“In August, the EPA released its new more costly carbon emissions rule that will require North Dakota to reduce CO2 emissions by 45 percent, a dramatic increase from the approximate 11 percent reduction called for in the proposed rule,” Hoeven said. “The reality is that the EPA’s new rules will actually discourage the kind of investment and innovation we need to produce more energy with better environmental stewardship. Instead of imposing new, onerous rules, we should be empowering investment, as we have in North Dakota. Our energy companies have spent billions of dollars in technologies that produce energy more cost-effectively and with better environmental stewardship. That’s why a group of senators joined together to file these resolutions and prevent these burdensome rules.”

The senators are invoking the Congressional Review Act, which authorizes Congress by majority vote to repeal actions by a federal agency after a rule is formally published and submitted to Congress. If the resolution passes, it would stop the EPA’s power plant rules. 

In May, Hoeven, Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act (ARENA Act). The legislation prevents the EPA’s effort to circumvent Congress and impose new rules on power plants that will drive up costs for consumers and kill good jobs.

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