Washington,
DC (June 24, 2015) – Democrats and Republicans who agree on the need to
unburden small business from overregulation should join today on a measure that
would give states flexibility to balance economic concerns with the EPA’s
forthcoming clean air rules, said the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
“The effects of this costly regulation will fall
hardest on small business,” said Dan
Bosch, Sr. Manager of Regulatory Policy for NFIB. “We think it makes sense to slow things down,
let the states determine whether to move forward based on an analysis of the
impact.”
The House is expected to vote today on HR 2042,
the Ratepayer Protection Act, which aims to mitigate big spikes in electricity
rates that could result from the EPA’s new clean air rules, due out later this
year.
“The EPA is taking aim at coal-fired electricity
generators and that’s going to have an inflationary effect on rates,” said
Bosch. “Small businesses are extremely
sensitive to big fluctuations in energy prices and for that matter so are their
local customers.
“These are real costs that eat away at the
profitability of small businesses and ultimately that’s a killer,” he
continued. “This is a practical way to
let the states consider whether and how to deal with a set of regulations that
could be devastating to their local economies.”
The measure would delay implementation of the new
rules until all the legal challenges have been adjudicated. It would also allow the states to opt out of
the program if they determine that the rules will cause utility rates to soar
higher and faster than their economies can handle.
“It makes very little sense to force the states to
move ahead with a lot of costly changes that might eventually be nullified in
the courts. And it makes absolute sense
that elected state officials are in a much better position than federal
bureaucrats to assess whether and how heavily the costs will damage employment
and small businesses.”
Industry experts say the clean air rules will
increase compliance costs for electricity generators by as much as $480 billion
and drive up consumer rates by as much as 17 percent.
“There aren’t many small businesses that can count
on a 17 percent increase in sales to offset higher electric bills,” said Bosch.
“And there aren’t many consumers whose household incomes will increase by that
much either. So higher electricity costs
will hit Main Street businesses from two directions. Their expenses will increase and their
customers will have less money to spend.”
For more information about NFIB, please visit www.nfib.com.
