Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH) made the following statement after the U.S. House passed two joint resolutions disapproving of the Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented new rules to regulate carbon dioxide from U.S. power plants.  The measures were passed by the U.S. Senate last month with bipartisan support and now go to President Obama’s desk for his signature or veto. 

“At a time when small businesses are being crushed by burdensome regulations and high taxes, the last thing they need is a sudden spike in their electric bill courtesy of the EPA,” Chabot said. “Unfortunately, this latest EPA trick is part of a pattern of regulatory overreach by the Obama administration. When Congress refuses to give them new authority, they try to implement their objectives through executive fiat and America’s small businesses pay the price. While the President might be happy to see electricity rates ‘necessarily skyrocket,’ I am not. I join my colleagues in urging the President to abandon this costly cap-and-trade scheme."  

Under the Congressional Review Act, which was enacted in 1996 as part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, Congress has expedited authority to stop federal regulations by passing a joint resolution of disapproval.

More than two dozen states, including Chabot’s home state of Ohio, have filed federal lawsuits challenging the EPA’s new regulations for power plants. The resolutions have been endorsed by numerous national and state organizations representing a cross-section of stakeholders including the Ohio Cast Metals Association, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Coal Association, Ohio Manufacturers’ Association and Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc.

Last year, then-EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe was pressed by Members of the Small Business Committee on the impact of the EPA’s new power plant rules on small power plants and small businesses at a full Committee hearing. Members raised serious concerns about the EPA’s failure to comply with statutory requirements to assess the impact of the new regulations on small entities.