Washington, D.C.– This week the House fought back against overreach by the Obama administration and stood on the side of jobs and affordable energy.

“The Obama administration continues its executive overreach with burdensome rules and painful tax increases that are harmful to working families. The House took steps this week to stop this, voting to delay the expansive ozone rule that will hamper economic growth, and rejected taxes that would increase energy prices for all Americans,” said McKinley.

“Families are already struggling to get by and the President’s proposals will only make it harder to make ends meet. Taxing energy will make it harder for people to put gas in their car and heat their homes. If we want to turn our economy around, create jobs, and allow more people to succeed, we need to put a stop to these kinds of executive overreach,” McKinley said.

Background on H.R. 4775, Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016

H.R. 4775 seeks to facilitate more efficient implementation of ozone standards, and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) program generally. Key provisions would:

• Phase in implementation of the 2015 ozone standards by extending the date for final designations from 2017 to 2025, and aligning permitting requirements;
• Revise the time for mandatory review of NAAQS from five to ten years, while allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator discretion to issue revised standards earlier;
• Authorize the EPA Administrator to consider technological feasibility, as a secondary consideration, when establishing or revising NAAQS;
• Direct the EPA Administrator to obtain advice from the agency’s scientific advisory committee regarding potential adverse effects prior to revising NAAQS, as required by Section 109 of the Clean Air Act;
• Direct the EPA Administrator to issue implementation regulations and guidance concurrently when revising NAAQS, including with respect to permitting requirements;
• Ensure that for certain ozone and particulate matter nonattainment areas, States are not required to include economically infeasible measures in their implementation plans;
• Revise the definition of exceptional events under Section 319 of the Clean Air Act to include droughts and extraordinary stagnation; and
• Direct EPA to submit two reports to Congress including (i) a report regarding the impacts of foreign emissions on NAAQS compliance and related matters; and (ii) a report regarding ozone formation and effective control strategies.

 

Background on the President’s $10 per barrel tax on oil (H. Con. Res. 112)

The President’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal includes a proposed additional $10.25 per barrel excise tax on oil produced in or imported into the United States and H. Con. Res. 112 expresses disapproval to this proposed tax.

This new tax would increase the prices of any consumer goods and services that use oil in their preparation, production, manufacture, transport, or distribution. This tax would only hurt the pocketbooks of American families at a time when our economy continues to struggle.

 

Background on a carbon tax (H. Con. Res. 89)

H. Con. Res. 89 expresses the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be harmful to the American economy.

This tax would hit as the energy industry is experiencing economic stagnation – over the course of this year, the oil and gas and coal sectors have lost thousands of jobs.  Now is not the time to debate placing additional tax burdens on these industries.