Washington DC – Today, Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) led the full committee in a small business hearing. “Tough Regulations: Examining the Impact of Energy Department Guidance on America’s Entrepreneurs.” Chairman Williams issued the following statement after today’s hearing.
“With every new regulation coming out of this administration, it seems like they’ve passed it on to Main Street America.” said Chairman Williams. “Burden guidelines from the Department of Energy, like those on gas stoves, ceiling fans and refrigerators, force our entrepreneurs to play defense and take time away from their core mission. These measures will force Main Street to foot the bill for the radical climate agenda. This committee works to stand by our entrepreneurs and avoid bureaucratic entanglements as much as possible.
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Watch the full hearing over here.
Below are some key takeaways from today’s hearing.
Chairman Williams: “To Mr. Lewis, in your testimony, you emphasized that you believe the best thing Congress can do to protect small businesses and consumers is to take away DOD’s full authority to set standards. Why do you feel this is an important step, and why shouldn’t DOE be responsible for setting these standards? Mr. Lewis: “DOE has been setting these standards since EPCA was passed, and maybe even earlier, some parts of the federal government, and EPCA was passed in 1975. So we’ve got decades of mandatory equipment energy increases. And we, I think, are long past the point of catching all the low-hanging fruit. And we had an example mentioned earlier of 1/10 of 1 percent improving energy efficiency, and it’s hard to believe that that translates into huge net savings for small businesses or the economy.
Representative Stauber: “We’re here today to talk about the devastating impact DOE’s efficiency standards have had on small businesses and families in our district. These standards are designed to reduce energy consumption in our homes and businesses. However, they have had the unintended effect of making our homes cheaper and more expensive to build. Ms. Huey, you mentioned in your testimony what you think federal regulatory agencies should include The, quote, truth, last quote, the value of rules in the rule making process. Can you expand a bit on what you mean by actual cost?” Ms. Hui: “Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. What I’ve learned in the regulatory process here in Washington is that agencies are required to consider only the direct costs of making new regulations. Sometimes they don’t just consider waiting time. Time is money, to install water pipes, to maintain zoning, to maintain permits. To protect, all those factors must be taken into consideration.
Republic Van Duyn: “We heard testimony and answered some questions about whether these regulations would benefit small businesses. Mr. Broman, I’m going to ask you, do you work for a small business? How often do you guys go, oh my gosh, we’ve got so many rules. And these will benefit us,” he said. Mr. Baumann: “As I said, on the product side, our competitiveness and our ability to deliver, create products and operate along those lines will hurt us, and we’re taking time to deal with that and dealing with regulations. And as Ms. Hammond said, we were in a meeting yesterday with the DOE, of course, about commercial refrigeration equipment. I was there, I was basically the only small business. There were a few others, but many small businesses don’t have the opportunity that we invested in to do that. So it became an absolute burden.
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