[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16615]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ENERGY REGULATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, the Obama 
administration recently published massive energy regulations that will 
not do a thing to meaningfully affect global carbon levels. It will not 
make a noticeable difference to the global environment. But it will 
ship more middle-class jobs overseas. It will punish the poor. It will 
make it even harder for coal families in States such as Kentucky to put 
food on the table. In other words, it is facts-optional extremism 
wrapped in callous indifference. Senators from both parties are saying: 
Enough is enough.
  We filed bipartisan measures that would allow Congress to overturn 
these two-pronged regressive regulations. I joined Senator Heitkamp and 
Senator Capito on a measure that would address the prong that pertains 
to the existing energy sources. Senator Manchin joined me as I 
introduced a measure that would address the prong that pertains to new 
energy sources. Together these measures represent a comprehensive 
solution. Colleagues will join me to speak about these resolutions 
later today. I am sure they will say more about the measures we filed 
and the process associated with them.
  But what everyone should know is this: The publication of these 
regulations does not represent an end but a beginning. It is the 
beginning of a new front to defend hard-working middle-class Americans 
from massive, massive regulations that target them. That front is 
opening here in Congress, and it is opening across the country as 
States file lawsuits and Governors stand up for their own middle-class 
constituents. The battle may not be short, and the battle may not be 
easy, but Kentuckians and hard-working Americans should know that I am 
going to keep standing up for them throughout this effort.

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