[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 957-958]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              BOILER MACT

  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor to discuss an 
important action this Congress can take to protect manufacturing jobs 
and strengthen our economy.
  Specifically, I encourage Senate conferees on the payroll tax bill to 
include projobs bipartisan language--such as H.R. 2250 or S. 1392--that 
would address the EPA's proposed rule on maximum achievable control 
technology standards for boilers, also known as boiler MACT.
  Fixing boiler MACT is important because if the EPA gets it wrong, it 
will cost tens of thousands of good-paying blue-collar manufacturing 
jobs. These regulations will be one more unnecessary weight dragging 
down our economy and making life harder for low- and middle-income 
families.
  Fixing boiler MACT is important also because Congress should provide 
clarity and certainty to the rulemaking process. The process has been 
plagued by complications, administrative stays, court orders, and 
numerous other stops and starts.
  For example, employers spent hundreds of millions working to comply 
with the 2004 boiler MACT rules only to be told they must now spend 
billions more. The boiler MACT legislation should be included in the 
payroll tax relief legislation which is intended to provide some help 
to our sluggish economy by allowing Americans to keep a little more of 
the money they earn. By addressing boiler MACT on this bill, we can 
further protect jobs--especially manufacturing jobs--and prevent our 
country from having to absorb one more sudden regulatory punch in the 
gut.
  Fixing boiler MACT is important because our economy is weak and 
families are struggling. Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional 
Budget Office predicted a weak and perilous economic situation for the 
next couple years. We see continued high unemployment, including 
estimates that the unemployment rate will tick up to 8.9 percent this 
year and 9.2 percent next year. We see projections of $1.2 trillion 
deficits. On top of all this, we have learned that the GDP growth 
slowed to just 1.7 percent last year.
  I hope these troubling projections are wrong, but given what we know, 
we should be focused on encouraging job growth and opportunity. 
American families are counting on us. We should not stifle businesses 
that want to expand and create jobs. One way to help is to provide some 
regulatory certainty and to allow employers the time they need to 
adjust to new, burdensome regulations.
  The boiler MACT fix would provide the EPA an additional 15 months to 
prepare appropriate, justified, and achievable regulations for 
industrial boilers. Without this time, EPA will be forced to rush the 
rules out the door only a few weeks after they will receive hundreds of 
substantive comments and new data on boiler performance.
  The boiler MACT fix would also give employers a little extra time to 
comply with the rules once they are finalized. This is vital because it 
will minimize job losses that would occur if employers had to rush to 
implement the new rules. The rules are very expensive and spreading the 
cost out over a couple extra years will make it less likely that 
employers will have to lay off employees.
  In Arkansas alone, boiler MACT will cost over $230 million and put 
3,600 jobs at risk. These are real jobs and real people. I shake their 
hands and I hear their serious concerns when I visit communities such 
as Pine Bluff, AR, or Howard County, AR. In our State, the proposed 
boiler MACT rules will especially harm the employers with units that 
burn solid fuels such as biomass. The boiler MACT would help by stating 
that materials such as renewable biomass that have been used for fuel 
for decades should remain classified as fuel and not reclassified as 
solid waste.
  We should be encouraging the use of renewable biomass, not 
discouraging it. Sending biomass to a landfill makes absolutely no 
sense when we can use it to power our industries and create jobs. The 
potential harm to renewable, carbon-neutral biomass is very bad for 
Arkansas. But it is not just our rural States with significant biomass 
that will be harmed; boiler MACT will hit all States, large and small, 
rural and urban.
  For example, in Pennsylvania it will cost over $751 million and put 
over 12,000 jobs at risk. In Montana it will cost $32 million and put 
over 500 jobs at risk. In Maryland it will cost over $195 million and 
put over 3,100 jobs at risk. In Rhode Island it will cost over $19 
million and put hundreds of jobs at risk. In Wyoming it will cost over 
$155 million and put over 2,400 jobs at risk.
  Some of the hardest hit States include North Carolina, Ohio, 
Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Virginia, 
Illinois, and Minnesota. Several States will see more than 12,000 jobs 
put at risk. In Arkansas, the expense and uncertainty created by these 
rules will force some employers to scale back. Other employers may be 
able to keep existing jobs but decide that it does not make sense to 
hire new employees while they face these mounting regulatory costs. 
Given these serious concerns, the boiler MACT fix will provide clarity 
and give businesses a reasonable timeframe to comply. The boiler MACT 
legislation passed the other body with bipartisan support from 275 
Congressmen. In the Senate this legislation has the support of a strong 
bipartisan majority.
  Over the last four decades our country has cleaned our air by 
reducing emissions that cause serious threats--threats to human health 
and to the environment. I strongly support appropriate, science-based 
protection for clean air, and we must continue to protect the 
environment.
  The public will continue to support appropriate protections for clean 
air, especially if this Congress takes a reasonable approach and gives 
the EPA the time it needs to develop rules that are achievable and that 
can be implemented in a timeline that will protect important 
manufacturing jobs throughout our country. For these reasons I urge the 
Senate conferees on the payroll tax bill to include the boiler

[[Page 958]]

MACT fix. I also ask my colleagues to let the conferees know how 
important this issue is. Together, we can help create opportunities and 
protect these important, high-paying manufacturing and other blue 
collar jobs.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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