API: New power plant rule harms American workers and those struggling to pay for energy

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2015 – The EPA’s final power plant rule imposes unnecessary costs on states and U.S. consumers, particularly poorer communities, while overlooking the proven, market-driven potential of natural gas to help reduce emissions, said API.  API opposes the rule because it oversteps the authority given to the EPA under the Clean Air Act.   “America is leading the world in reducing emissions thanks to a revolution in the production and use of natural gas,” said Howard J. Feldman, API senior director of regulatory and scientific affairs. “We can continue that progress without costly new regulations that could hurt consumers and stifle economic growth.      “Meeting climate challenges must go hand-in-hand with ensuring that Americans have the affordable and reliable energy necessary to grow our economy and create jobs. Instead, the EPA rule could impose the greatest costs on those who can least afford it – Americans looking for jobs and families that don’t have the means to pay higher monthly bills to heat and cool their homes.   “Over the last few years, consumer-driven investments in natural gas have lowered energy bills for hard-pressed families while helping cut emissions to near 20-year lows. By picking winners and losers in the energy mix, EPA’s rules could force consumers to pay far more money for far fewer environmental benefits.       “America’s oil and natural gas industry invests more in zero- and low-emissions technologies than the federal government and nearly as much as all other industries combined. With or without new regulations, natural gas will continue to grow as a critical source of clean energy, but the EPA’s rule does more harm than good.”           API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 20 million Americans.