Senate Introduces the “Fair Compliance Act”: A More Realistic EPA Regulation Timeline
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kaitlyn Buss
Phone: 202-742-8526
Email: kbuss@alec.org
Senate Introduces the “Fair Compliance Act”: A More Realistic EPA Regulation Timeline
Washington DC—(November 16, 2011): The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) applauds the concept of the Fair Compliance Act of 2011 (Senate Bill 1833). The bill was introduced last week with bipartisan support by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Dan Coats (R-IN). Additional cosponsors include Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Ben Nelson (D-NE). This bill and the TRAIN Act passed earlier this year by the House would help protect electricity consumers from the risk of power shortages and extreme price increases from overly aggressive EPA regulations.
The “Fair Compliance Act” would give power companies a more realistic timeframe for compliance with the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) and the Utility MACT Rule, which ALEC has identified as key elements of the Train Wreck of burdensome and unnecessary regulations.
In February 2011, ALEC published EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators, which helped engage policymakers on the EPA’s most hostile regulatory assaults on energy affordability and reliability. Recently, ALEC published its first in a series of policy guides on the coming EPA regulations. The Cross State Air Pollution Rule, one of the more onerous of the EPA rules, will be addressed by the “Fair Compliance Act”.
“The bill does not change the stringency or reduction levels of any EPA regulations,” said Todd Wynn, ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Director. “But it would help to minimize the damage of the train wreck that will happen if the regulations pile onto American consumers and manufacturing companies too fast.”
Affordable and reliable electricity is the lifeblood of the American economy, and the “Fair Compliance Act” helps lessen the burden of two of the most damaging EPA rules. The bill addresses deep concerns voiced by utility regulators and grid operators about the impact of planned power plant closures if the EPA timelines are not changed.
The bill also synchronizes the deadlines for the two rules and would require utilities to submit implementation plans on how their emission reductions will be made. This would allow the U.S. Department of Energy and reliability organizations to coordinate plant retirements and technology retrofits so power shortages will not occur.
ALEC’s EPA’s Regulatory Trainwreck: Strategies for State Legislators is available at www.regulatorytrainwreck.com.
ALEC’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule Policy Guide is available at http://www.alec.org/wp-content/uploads/CSAPR-design-FINAL.pdf
ALEC policies, resolutions and model bills are approved by our members and are a result of non-partisan research and analysis.
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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators, with over 2,000 state legislators across the nation and more than 100 alumni members in Congress. ALEC’s mission is to promote free markets, individual liberty, and federalism through its model legislation in the states.