CEI Applauds Ratepayer Protection Act Passage in the House

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered the following response to today’s passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Senior Fellow William Yeatman said:

“The Ratepayer Protection Act (RPA) is a necessary check on the Obama administration’s expansion of agency power. The RPA is a commonsense measure that basically codifies how EPA interpreted the Clean Air Act for three decades before the Obama administration. In the late 1970s, EPA promulgated a rule that allowed States to exempt sources from regulation under the ‘existing source performance standards’ program, which is the same program that authorizes EPA’s controversial ‘Clean Power’ Plan. EPA, however, made no mention of these variances in its proposed ‘Clean Power’ Plan. The RPA would reintroduce this practice by allowing Governors to opt out the rule if he/she determines it would have an unacceptable impact on energy prices or electric reliability.”

Myron Ebell, CEI’s director of the Center for Energy and Environment, added this warning in advance of December’s Paris Accord:

“Passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act puts the world on notice that the Obama Administration’s commitments for the Paris Accord enjoy little public support and will never be implemented.  Negotiators from other countries need to understand before the new UN global warming treaty is signed in December in Paris that it will never be ratified by the U. S. Senate.”      

Yesterday, CEI sent a letter, along with 13 other signatories, urging Congress to pass the RPA. You can find that letter and more information here.