Washington, D.C. - On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a power plant (CO2 ) rule that will not only lead to higher utility bills for hardworking Americans, but will also disproportionately harm millions of millennials and young people comprising the next generation. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce issued this statement:
"As I said earlier this week, low-income families and seniors on fixed-incomes will feel the brunt of the Obama Administration's power plant rule in the form of higher electric bills and loss of reliable electricity. At the same time, this regulation, which was rejected by Congress, will severely handicap younger generations, who are struggling in the worst recovery from a recession in 70 years.
"Since 2010, young adults and teens have faced double-digit unemployment. At a time when far too many, regardless of age, remain unemployed or underemployed, the Obama Administration's new EPA rule will make it harder for the next generation of Americans to find jobs as power plants will be forced to close and as other industries, reliant on affordable electricity, will cut back to cover costs."
According to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center, more than half of America's unemployed are teens and young adults. Teens face a staggering unemployment rate of 18.1 percent. The Pew Research data also shows that the share of young adults now living in their parents' homes is 26 percent, an increase of 2 percent since 2010.
The new 1,500-paged EPA rule forces states to rely on less reliable forms of energy and eliminates the move to natural gas, that has created thousands of jobs in New Mexico and nationally. Congress didn't vote for the rule. In fact, the House expressly rejected this EPA policy to force the closure of coal-fired power plants nationwide. On June 23, the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 2042) that would protect consumers from the EPA's costly, so-called Clean Power Plan. In 2010, a bipartisan coalition in Congress also rejected the Obama Administration's job-killing cap and trade legislation.