Issue Position: Energy and Environment

Issue Position

The energy sector is crucial to our economic growth and high-energy costs have a negative impact on every American. The administration's current top-down, "Washington-knows-best" policy continues to have detrimental effects on average Americans. While I believe we must continue to look for alternative sources of energy, I continue to support an all-of-the-above energy policy that utilizes all North American resources to provide safe, stable, and affordable energy to all my constituents.

This administration's "War on Coal' is a travesty. Over 80% of Missouri's energy comes from coal. It is abundant and affordable and can be burned cleanly. The federal regulations targeting the coal industry hurt Missouri families who will see their electricity bills skyrocket. The ones hurt the most are those on fixed incomes such as senior citizens and those struggling to make ends meet. This doesn't have to be. We can utilize new technologies and new energy sources, but we should also continue to use those energy sources which our country has been blessed with.

In addition, we need to rein in the regulatory overreach of many federal agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to advance burdensome regulations that threaten our energy independence, stifle our economic recovery, and force employers to expend resources on unnecessary regulations. Many of these regulations are implemented without scientific justification or proper cost-benefit analysis and all too often arbitrarily pick winners and losers.

It is important that we reduce our dependency on foreign oil, protect the environment, and supply the energy required to create the family-supporting jobs we need. I will continue to support common sense reforms to our environmental policy that balance progress with practicality while avoiding unfunded mandates and reliance on untested technologies that increase costs to consumers so Missourians will have access to affordable energy.

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