releases: http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=6c04a210-8022-4e7e-9416-da0dca7aa811
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=6c04a210-8022-4e7e-9416-da0dca7aa811 | Barrasso: Congress Works to Rein in Irresponsible EPA | 2015-10-29 | 2015 | 2015-10 | Republican | House | WY | John Barrasso | B001261 | www.barrasso.senate.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting the recent report that confirms the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could have prevented the Gold King Mine spill. Barrasso also details some of the Obama administrations most egregious new rules and how members of Congress are working to stop them. Transcript of Senator Barrassos remarks: Back in August, several western states and Indian tribes suffered an enormous environmental disaster. Its been called the Gold King Mine Spill. In this disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency spilled three million gallons of toxic wastewater into a tributary of the Animas River in Colorado. This plume of toxic waste threatened people in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It stretched to the land of the Navajo Nation, and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Last month, I chaired a hearing of the Indian Affairs Committee that looked at the spill. The EPA was there to testify. The EPA claimed that it was taking full responsibility and that it did everything it could to deflect actual blame. They said theyre taking full responsibility, then they did everything they could to deflect actual blame. The agency administrator actually told our committee that the spill was inevitable. Does that sound like someone whos actually taking full responsibility? Well, last week we got the results of the investigation by the Interior Department about what actually happened at the Gold King Mine. On Friday, the Washington Post reported, EPA gets blame for mine spill into rivers. According to this report, the EPAs crew didnt take engineering into account when it was working on the mine. The agency didnt understand that water in these mines can create hydraulic forces similar to a dam. How could the experts from the EPAthe U.S. governments Environmental Protection Agencynot know that? The report also said that the conditions and actions that led to the Gold King Mine incident are not isolated or unique, and in fact are surprisingly prevalent. Remember, the EPA said it was inevitable. The only way this spill was inevitable is because the EPA is so inept, so negligent, so incompetent that it was inevitable the agency would cause a disaster like this someday. Now they have. It is inevitable that the agency is going to keep making the same mistakes unless something changes at this irresponsible, incompetent agency. So whats changed? Its been almost three months since this disaster happened. The Environmental Protection Agency has not named a single person whom it is holding responsible for poisoning the river. If the EPAs incompetence is surprisingly prevalent as the investigation found youd think that this agency should be trying to get its house in order, before it takes on new jobs. Thats not what the Obama administration is doing. Its not slowing down at all. Its not slowing down in its quest for more power, and more ways that it can control what people do. On Friday, the Obama administration published the final rule for what it calls its Clean Power Plan. This regulation would create more Washington control over how electricity is produced across the country. That very same day, 26 states including mine and that of the presidents, 26 states filed lawsuits in federal court to stop this disastrous rule. These states say that the Environmental Protection Agency went far beyond anything that the law allows and far beyond anything Congress ever intended. I completely agree. This rule is too expensive, it is too extensive, and it is too extreme. Now the EPA does has a job to do and it is failing dramatically at its job. Instead of going back to basics and doing its job right the EPA wants more power, more control, less accountability. The so-called Clean Power Plan will cost billions of dollars. According to one estimate, it will destroy the jobs of more than 125,000 Americans. None of that seems to matter to the President of the United States or his administration and the EPA. They are driven by ideology, not by the facts and their ideology is driven by their desire for more control. Thats why its so urgent that we focus our attention on all of the ways this Washington bureaucracy is trying to restrict peoples freedom and take more control for themselves. The Obama administration isnt even satisfied telling states how to get their energy. Now the Obama administration wants to be involved in making these decisions for the whole world. Its trying to negotiate a climate change treaty that will impose broad new limits on American energy. This treaty will also do incredible damage to the American economy. At the same time, the administration wants to pay billions of American taxpayer dollars, hard-earned dollars, they want to pay it to other countries. In return for these other countries adopting green energy sources like solar panels, the Obama administration will help prop up their economiesnot at their expensebut at Americas expense. It wants to do all of this behind closed doors without any oversight from Congress or the American people. The administration wants to make sure that nobody can do anything to stop it, until after its too late. It wants to tie the hands of the American economy, dole out billions of taxpayer dollars, and not even ask the American people if this is what they want. The United States Congress cannot stand for that. Its the wrong choice for America and its the wrong choice for the rest of the world as well. There was an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last Thursday by Bjorn Lomborg. Now hes the director of a non-partisan, international group called the Copenhagen Consensus Center. The headline is This Child Doesnt Need a Solar Panel, with a photo of a child in a slum in Mozambique. The author points out that the Obama administration is wrongly focused on this kind of climate change payoff that the president is promoting. In the op-ed he writes: This effectively means telling the worlds worst-off people, suffering from tuberculosis, malaria, or malnutrition, that what they really need isnt medicine, mosquito nets, or micronutrients, but a solar panel. It is terrible news. He goes on: In a world in which malnourishment continues to claim at least 1.4 million childrens lives each year, 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty, and 2.6 billion lack clean drinking water and sanitation, this growing emphasis on climate aid is immoral. Thats the assessment coming out of the Copenhagen Consensus Centerthe presidents actions are immoral. There are some very real dangers facing the United States and other countries today. Like the threat from global terrorists and from countries like Russia, Iran, North Korea. There are desperate humanitarian crises around the world. These should be the focus of the Obama administrations foreign policy. Here at home, the EPA should be cleaning up the environment, not poisoning Americans rivers and lakes. Until the Obama administration gets its priorities straight, Congress will have to act to stop it. Republicans have introduced legislation to block some of the administrations most egregious new rules. Senator Ernst has filed a resolution against the so-called Waters of the U.S., the WOTUS, rule. Ive introduced legislation to replace the WOTUS rule with one that protects waterways, while preventing Washingtons takeover of non-navigable waterways. Senator McConnell and Senator Capito have filed resolutions against the extreme limits on power plants. Senator Flake has filed one on the burdensome new ozone standard. Were going to keep a spotlight on this administration as it negotiates this new climate change treaty. Were going to stop it from committing this country to another bad deal and the rest of us will be paying for that bad deal long after President Obama is out of office. Congress is going to hold the Obama administration accountable and rein in the Washington bureaucrats before they do additional damage. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |