The House voted on Aug. 1 to pass the Energy Consumers Relief Act, which would create checks and balances on the EPA and reduce or eliminate regulations that threaten to increase energy prices and put some job creators out of business.
Congress voted 232-181 to pass the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). The legislation establishes a requirement that prior to the EPA finalizing any new energy-related rules estimated to cost more than $1 billion, the agency must submit a report to Congress detailing certain cost, benefit, energy price and job impacts. The EPA would be prohibited from finalizing certain rules if they are determined to cause significant adverse effects to the economy.
“The passage of my Energy Consumers Relief Act is the first step toward checking President Obama’s overreaching agenda,” Cassidy said. “It pushes the EPA regulatory process out in the open. It simply says that Americans should know whether EPA regulations will kill jobs. This will create an honest debate which will force the president to account for his actions.”
Part of the bill’s path to passage included a trip through the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, which is chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.).
“We’re developing technology and do have other opportunities to explore energy sources,” Whitfield said at a Ripon Society breakfast event in 2012. “But when we go home to our districts, we talk to folks who don’t have jobs. We talk to people who want to invest money. We talk to people who want certainty in regulations and economic policy. And they really feel adrift – that this government is working against them instead of trying to help them, for the simple purpose that this government is pursuing its own political goals more than trying to stimulate the economy.”