Today the House took a big step in slowing down several of the harmful Environmental Protection Agency regulations by passing the TRAIN Act (H.R. 2401). The bipartisan vote was 249-169.

Earlier this week the National Association of Manufactures sent a Key Vote letter to members of the House urguing them to vote to protect jobs by voting in favor of the bill:

Under Utility MACT and the recently finalized CSAPR, electricity costs will increase by as much as 23 percent in some of the largest manufacturing regions of our nation, resulting in a loss of 1.4 million jobs by 2020, according to National Economic Research Associates. In addition to cost increases and job losses, there will be serious grid reliability issues as coal-fired power plants are taken offline. These reliability issues will likely manifest themselves in a lack of adequate power for both industrial users and consumers.

Before imposing unduly strict mandates on America’s job creators, Congress and the regulatory agencies should employ rigorous economic analysis to better understand potential economic impacts and cost-benefit relationships. The TRAIN Act calls for a cumulative analysis of pending EPA proposals – while staying the Utility MACT proposal and CSAPR until six months after the study has been completed. This represents a responsible and prudent course of action, and we urge your support.

We’ve already seen some examples of the impact on jobs from the Cross-State Pollution rule and the Utility MACT rule will increase energy costs, severely harming manufacturers’ competitiveness. Manufacturers now urge the Senate to take up this legislation to rein in the EPA and its aggressive overreaching agenda.