Press Releases

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement today in response to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s comments in a New York Times interview published July 5: 

“The EPA is back at it again. More overreaching regulations, more jobs lost. Tomorrow (Thursday) the EPA is expected to announce stricter rules on emissions produced by coal-fired power plants. While I have not yet seen the rules, all indications are that they will hurt jobs in Southwest Virginia. Companies like AEP have already announced that proposed burdensome regulations on coal-fired power plants will cause them to prematurely close the Glen Lyn Plant in Giles County and decrease production at the Clinch River Plant in Russell County. These rules will cause electric rates to increase significantly, thus making it harder to do business and create jobs.

“In a recent interview, Lisa Jackson said, ‘the only thing worse than no EPA is an EPA that exists and doesn’t do its job…we are doing our job.’”

“Apparently Lisa Jackson thinks it is the EPA’s job to bring additional unemployment to Southwest Virginia, curtail jobs nationwide, and subject us to more air pollution by sending manufacturing jobs to countries like China and Mexico. A solution for job losses in Southwest Virginia is for Lisa Jackson to lose her job and the President to appoint someone who understands the need for a balance between environmental protections and the need for jobs. As long as Lisa Jackson and the Obama Administration’s current policies remain at the EPA, I fear the economy will remain stagnant.”

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