Foxx Votes to Help Keep Electricity Affordable, Stop EPA’s Regulatory Assault on States

WASHINGTON – June 25, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., today voted in favor of bipartisan legislation designed to help keep electricity prices affordable for families and businesses.

“The EPA is out of touch with the energy needs of Americans, and its unelected bureaucrats too often make decisions without consideration for how those choices will affect people’s daily lives. The ‘Clean Power Plan’ rule is yet another example of the EPA’s regulatory overreach,” said Foxx. “The Ratepayer Protection Act puts electric generation back in the hands of states. Instead of overregulating energy production, we need to focus on advancing policies that allow us to utilize our innovative culture to develop new sources of energy and create jobs here at home.”

In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed carbon pollution standards for existing power plants, referred to by the agency as the “Clean Power Plan.” In the rule, EPA interprets a rarely invoked provision of the Clean Air Act, section 111(d), to allow the agency to set mandatory carbon dioxide “goals” for each state’s electricity system. State governors, regulators and other stakeholders have submitted extensive comments raising concerns about the rule.

H.R. 2042, the Ratepayer Protection Act, would allow for timely judicial review of the “Clean Power Plan” standards before states would be required to comply with the rule as well as ensure a state would not be forced to implement a plan that would have a significant adverse effect on its ratepayers. It passed the House by a vote of 247-180.

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U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the elected Republican Conference Secretary. Dr. Foxx is the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and serves as Vice Chair of the House Rules Committee.