Rep. McKinley's Coal Ash Legislation Now Heads to the Senate

Press Release

The Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2013 (H.R. 2218), introduced by Rep. McKinley, overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives with solid bipartisan support from 39 Democrats by a vote of 265 to 155 last Thursday.

The legislation would protect the recycling of coal ash and give states the authority to set their own standards for the disposal of fly ash with oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while protecting human health and the environment.

"Every day, coal ash is produced in 48 states," McKinley added. "Every year 140 million tons are produced. If we do nothing coal ash will continue to be disposed based on standards from the 1950's and 1960's, while the stigma associated with recycling will remain. We cannot let that continue."

The bill is a product of two-and-a-half years of negotiations with stakeholders, the states, the Senate, and the administration. It is a workable solution to coal ash regulation and provides an alternative to EPA's 2010 proposal to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, which put hundreds of thousands of jobs in jeopardy and threatened to drive up electricity and construction costs.

"For 33 years Congress has wrestled with how to deal with coal ash but has failed to find an answer," said McKinley. "The bill that passed the House is a common sense solution for how to recycle and dispose of this unavoidable byproduct of burning coal."

More than 200 organizations collectively voiced their support for this common sense regulatory solution, joining the broad coalition of stakeholders supporting the commonsense jobs bill.

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