On July 25, Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) addressed APGA members on the first day of the 2016 Annual Conference. Over the past several years, Congressman Blackburn has been a champion of many APGA energy initiatives and has been a leader in opposing unreasonable regulations. To help illustrate this point, the Congressman highlighted the fact that since 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued over 3,000 rules. And more specifically, 100 of those rules are related to greenhouse gases. Last year, Congressman Blackburn led an effort to prevent the Department of Energy (DOE) from funding a program to develop and implement a residential furnace standard.
In addition to her work protecting homeowners from unnecessary regulatory burdens, she also co-sponsored a bill that would keep DOE in check during the model code development process. Over the past two years, APGA along with the homebuilders and other building managers have advocated strongly to further delineate DOE’s role and prevent the federal government from picking winners and losers. If you add up the cost of these burdensome rules, it would cost each household $15,000 annually to comply.
The Congressman also expressed concern over how several state attorney generals are attempting to silence climate change critics through subpoenas to fossil fuel companies. As Vice-Chair of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, she is directly involved in many of the issues critical to APGA. The Congressman’s committee is responsible for successfully passing the reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act, and revisions to the Toxic Substances Control Act and House’s comprehensive energy bill.
For questions on this article, please contact Dan Lapato of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at
dlapato@apga.org.