Regulations Harming Job Creation

This Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of “Recovery Summer”, a public relations initiative of the Obama Administration that attempted to highlight the positive effects of the President’s policies on the economy.

Unfortunately, one year later, America’s economy remains stagnant. The economic news of the last few weeks has been uniformly negative. Unemployment is at 9.1%, nearly 14 million Americans are out of work and millions more are forced to work part-time or at reduced wages. This administration’s policies are not working.

Here’s a good example of the tangible impact that the Obama Administration’s policies are having on the economy right here in the 7^th District:

A few weeks ago, Lisa Jackson, the administrator of President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I was able to question Administrator Jackson over an issue of particular concern to residents of the 7^th District – the regulatory burdens placed on domestic oil refineries. Oil refineries employ thousands of 7^th District residents in lower Delaware County, but rising costs and increased international competition threaten to send those jobs overseas.

At one particular refinery, the EPA has required the installment of a new closed-cycle water cooling system at a cost to the refinery of $350 million. What effect will this new cooling system have? It will make the water two degrees warmer upon discharge to prevent fish swimming in the Delaware River from getting confused.

Protecting our area waterways is a vital task, and when I was the U.S. Attorney, I earned a strong record of protecting the environment and prosecuting polluters. But our refineries, and the thousands of good jobs that accompany them, are in danger of extinction. The EPA’s mandates are just some of the numerous ways in which the federal government is impeding the creation of the jobs we need to get our economy back on track.

Only when we get government off the backs of America’s job creators will we truly experience a “Recovery Summer”.