Today, U.S. Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers (KY-05) questioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson on her Fiscal Year 2012 budget request.  

Rogers has been a leader in the U.S. House of Representatives in challenging the EPA’s regulatory agenda, particularly regarding the agency’s targeted efforts to regulate coal out of business.  During an Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies hearing, Rogers demanded answers from Jackson on the economic impacts of EPA’s job-killing regulations and permitting backlogs, the repeal of a previously approved mining operation, and the Agency’s power-grab to regulate greenhouse gases.  In the past, Rogers has strongly condemned such “strangulation by regulation.”

Coal mining sustains 20,000 high-paying jobs in Kentucky, and supplies the fuel to power 50% of the nation at a low cost.

Excerpts from his statements are below. To watch Chairman Rogers’ hearing with EPA Director Lisa Jackson, click here: 
 
“Chairman Simpson has alluded to some of our concerns about your $9 billion budget submission, the EPA’s third highest in history.  When we’re borrowing 40 cents on the dollar, that staggering figure, in and of itself, is disconcerting. 

“But I must state for the record that I am not confident that the budget you’re defending today – or, frankly, your agency’s actions in the last two years – align with our important goals of creating jobs and opportunity.  In fact, I believe EPA is headed in the wrong direction with an aggressive and overzealous regulatory agenda that far exceeds the authority it’s been granted.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently released a report identifying over SIXTY regulatory actions recently taken by EPA that could have negative impacts on job creation.  SIXTY.

“EPA is running absolutely roughshod over our country’s small businesses, the very engines that propel our economy forward.  And you’ve left nearly every sector of the economy untouched – agriculture, manufacturing, construction, transportation – and the lifeblood of my region of the country, Appalachian coal mining.

“Wrong-headed greenhouse gas regulations, so-called “guidance” on surface mining, the retroactive veto of a coal permit that has undergone more than a decade of environmental review, re-opening a long-standing definition of “fill material” that could have devastating impacts to the mining sector nationwide.  All represent constitutionally dubious legislation by regulation.”

Rogers has served Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District since 1981. With a focus on economic development, job creation, fighting illegal drugs and preserving Appalachia’s natural treasures, he has a reputation for listening to his constituents and fighting for the region he represents. For more information visit www.halrogers.house.gov.

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