As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to move forward with its overreaching agenda the impact is beginning to be felt across the country. This week we’ve seen new reports in the news of jobs that will be lost as the result of facilities that will be forced to close because of new EPA regulations. These closing’s just don’t impact those who work at the plant, they impact the entire town.

A report from Williamsport, Maryland Herald-Mail yesterday tells the story of the impact the closing of the R. Paul Smith Power station will have on the entire community.

Williamsport resident Johnna Artz didn’t mince words Thursday about her opposition to the closing of the R. Paul Smith Power Station in town.

“This affects everybody,” she said. “It hurts the whole community with the number of jobs and revenue lost.” The plant, which went on line in 1927 and employs around 40 people, is being closed as a result of tougher emission regulations imposed by theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Artz, 71, who has lived in Williamsport for 48 years, said that the plant closing will impact her family. She said the federal government could focus on other environmental issues instead of those that take away jobs.

And on the banks of Lake Erie FirstEnergy Corp facing the same regulations will be shuttering plants which will impact hundreds of employees and have a domino effect through the local communities. (continue reading…)

This morning the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline last week. The witnesses at the hearing included officials from the Bureau of Oceans and International Environment and Scientific Affairs, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

During the hearing there was an attempt by several members of the Energy and Commerce Committee to politicize and further distract from the main issue at hand – jobs and energy security. It’s time for the politics to stop over Keystone XL and get down to how we move forward with this important project. President Obama and his Administration have already decided to play politics over sound policy and it will cost manufacturers jobs and lost competitiveness. We can no longer afford additional delays by playing partisan politics.

The project will put thousands of Americans back to work immediately and the benefit will be felt throughout the economy. The pipeline’s construction will create 20,000 manufacturing and construction jobs and 118,000 spin-off jobs.

The jobs numbers don’t tell the full story. Manufacturers are large consumers of energy, using one-third of our nation’s energy supply. Keystone XL will provide a key source of affordable energy for manufacturers. Manufacturers are already facing strong headwinds from rising energy prices and regulations which makes Keystone XL vitally important to manufacturers’ competitiveness against growing global competition. We can no longer afford to wait.

Yesterday’s rejection of the Keystone XL permit by the Administration brought some strong criticism from several major newspaper editorial boards. Manufacturers believe this decision by President Obama is a serious blow to job creation.

Keystone XL would have immediately created 20,000 construction and manufacturing jobs and provided a key source of affordable energy. Below are a few excerpts from today’s editorials.

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

“The White House also issued a statement denouncing Congress’s “rushed and arbitrary deadline,” which merely passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. This is, to put it politely, a crock.”

From the Washington Post’s editorial titled, Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejections is hard to accept:

“We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen — with long-term trends in the global market, it’s far too valuable to keep in the ground — but it would go to China. And, as a State Department report found, U.S. refineries would still import low-quality crude — just from the Middle East. Stopping the pipeline, then, wouldn’t do anything to reduce global warming, but it would almost certainly require more oil to be transported across oceans in tankers.”

From USA Today:

“The Obama administration’s kick-the-can decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, at least for now, leaves a confusing muddle that exemplifies the continuing fecklessness of U.S. energy policy.”

Today EPA air chief Gina McCarthy said that the final Boiler MACT regulations won’t be issued until May. The Boiler MACT regulations have been creating a great amount of uncertainty for manufacturers and will cost jobs. EPA released the revised proposed rules on Dec. 2 and just last week a judge removed the EPA’s stay on the original rules finalized in early 2011.

The Council of Industrial Boiler Owners estimates that the revised rules will put 232,078 jobs at risk and cost more than $14.5 billion in compliance costs. Manufacturers simply cannot afford this regulation to be piled on top of the already cumbersome regulatory burden they face.

The NAM has been urging the Senate to move forward with legislation to address the Boiler MACT rules and finally create some certainty. Business owners are eager to invest to grow and create jobs but regulations like Boiler MACT continue to be a bump in the road on the way to economic growth and jobs.

As much as EPA would like people to think they can resolve all the issues with this regulation they simple do not have that ability. Legislation under consideration by the House and Senate would provide EPA with the tools to make these regulations achievable and provide manufacturers with the time they need to comply.

According to news reports, President Obama will formally reject the Keystone XL Pipeline project today. If the reports prove to be true, this is a deeply concerning development for manufacturers and our overall economy.

This project will create 20,000 construction and manufacturing jobs and another study indicates that we would see an additional 118,000 indirect jobs. In such a time of high unemployment and economic difficulty, where is the logic in turning your back on a positive solution?

The National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups have sent a letter today to President Obama urging him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as possible. Provisions included in the payroll tax extension legislation that passed in December gave the President 60 days to approve the permit.

The project has been under review for more than three years and the State Department conducted more than 100 public meetings on the project.

Keystone XL construction will immediately create manufacturing jobs throughout the U.S. Numbers released as recently as yesterday show that the projects construction will create 7,000 manufacturing jobs.

Manufacturers are large consumers of energy, consuming more than one-third of our nation’s energy supply. This makes access to affordable sources of energy extremely important to manufacturers. Keystone XL will help keep energy costs low for manufacturers, which helps them better compete, grow and create new quality jobs. 

Excerpt from the letter:

The undersigned organizations urge you to approve the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as possible. With your approval, this shovel-ready project will provide 20,000 jobs in construction and manufacturing in the next two years, and add tens of thousands of additional jobs throughout the economy in other sectors including service, retail and distribution. With our nation’s stubbornly high unemployment, it would be irresponsible to let such good-paying jobs slip away.

We hope that the President will approve the project as soon as possible so we can get Americans back to work.

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a stay of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). This action will stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing this rule until the DC Circuit has completed full consideration of the legal challenges against it.

The EPA issued the CSAPR in July 2011. The rule replaces the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) that the D.C. Circuit determined was unlawful in 2008 and would implement a portion of the Clean Air Act that prohibits states from allowing emissions of pollutants in amounts that will contribute significantly to air quality problems in other states. The rule would require power plants in the middle and eastern portions of the U.S. to reduce emissions that contribute to ozone and/or fine particle pollution.  It also sets up an emissions trading program.  Had the court not granted the stay, the rule would have taken effect on January 1, 2012, an unprecedented short period of time between the finalization of the rule and its implementation.

On December 22 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it has certified Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP1000 reactor design. This is an improved reactor from every perspective including safety. It is the first time since the 1990s that NRC has approved a nuclear power plant design. This design will be used on two new power plants being built in the State of Georgia by Georgia Power, a Southern Company subsidiary.  NRC’s approval of this design will streamline the NRC licensing process and provide companies constructing nuclear power plants greater certainty. In addition, this will make it easier for Westinghouse, to market it reactor designs in a global economy. This in turn will create thousands of new jobs as our nuclear power plan industry will be renewed and the demand for supplies and parts will grow. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the components for the new Georgia plant will be made in the United States.

The Southern Company has made a significant investment in nuclear. They have already spent over $2 billion to get their project to this point and as the project moves forward it will mean thousands of new construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs when the plant is completed.

It is anticipated that the NRC will soon approve the first combined Construction and Operating License (COL) permit for a nuclear power plant in the United States. This will further streamline the licensing process and save millions of dollars and significantly reduce the construction to operation time frame. According to the NRC the last time a construction permit was issued to build a nuclear power plant was in 1978, 33 years ago. The last time the NRC issued an operating license was in 1996, 15 years ago. We are long overdue for a renaissance of nuclear power.  As manufactures use over a third of the energy produced in this country it heartening to see new sources of energy come on line that will help make our manufactures more competitive.

On the energy front, one of the biggest stories of 2011 was the development of shale gas.  And, if the current trends continue, it will likely be the story of 2012 as well.

The Wall Street Journal reports,

The boom in low-cost natural gas obtained from shale is driving investment in plants that use gas for fuel or as a raw material, setting off a race by states to attract such factories and the jobs they create.

Recently, natural gas prices have plummeted.  “Because electric utilities often burn gas,” the Journal notes, “that price drop has helped bring down average electricity costs.

That’s a big deal for manufacturers, which consume one-third of the energy produced in this country. Lower energy prices make manufacturers more competitive and help offset other areas where manufacturers in the country are at a disadvantage compared to our competitors.

The shale boom’s impact on manufacturing was highlighted in a recent report completed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released jointly with the National Association of Manufacturers.

The report shows that shale development means more investment in our economy, lower energy prices and one million more jobs by 2025.

This morning the House and the Senate both passed an amended payroll tax bill which includes the provisions requiring the President to approve the Keystone XL pipeline in the coming months. The measure passed both chambers very quickly this morning, by unanimous consent in the Senate, and by voice vote in the House.

The NAM has been advocating for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as possible. The project will immediately get Americans back to work and provide a key source of energy for manufacturers. The project will create as many as 118,000 jobs providing a benefit throughout the economy.

Manufacturers will continue to urge Congress to pass legislation to address the EPA’s harmful Boiler MACT rules. Legislation is needed to halt these damaging rules which will cost jobs and hurt manufacturers’ competitiveness.

Congress has now adjourned for the rest of 2011, we’ll see them again in early January 2012.