Rep. Tom Graves issued the following statement Wednesday after voting in favor of the Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 2042), legislation allowing states to avoid EPA’s proposed “Clean Power Plan” if state officials determine the rule would negatively impact ratepayers.
“Under the EPA’s proposed rule, the utility bills of hard-working Georgians could skyrocket, tightening the squeeze on families already struggling to make ends meet. This means less money to feed the family, pay the mortgage or save for retirement. It could also increase the cost of doing business, ratcheting up prices everywhere from the grocery store to the shopping mall. This legislation will effectively prevent the EPA’s proposed rule from being implemented in any state that doesn’t want it.”
H.R. 2042 passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 247 to 180.
Under the EPA’s proposed “Clean Power Plan,” each state would be forced to set mandatory carbon dioxide goals for its electricity system. A plan to achieve these goals would need to be submitted to the EPA in 2016, and the states would have to begin meeting interim goals in 2020 and the final goal in 2030. If a state’s plan does not meet the EPA’s standards, it would be forced to adopt a federal plan. While the EPA estimates this rule will cost between $7.3 billion and $8.8 billion in 2030, other forecasts estimate costs between $366 billion and $479 billion between 2017 and 2031, said officials.