Mr. President, I rise to speak on the issue of job creation as well, specifically in regard to legislation I will be introducing that seeks to not only create jobs but also to truly reduce the cost…
Mr. President, I rise to speak on the issue of job creation as well, specifically in regard to legislation I will be introducing that seeks to not only create jobs but also to truly reduce the cost of electricity to Americans throughout this country.
In North Dakota, we have a powerplant north of our State capitol, the city of Bismarck. It is about 1,100 megawatts. It consists of two separate plants, each of them 550 megawatts, so the complex provides 1,100 megawatts of electricity, power that fuels our State, as well as sending power to Minnesota and other places as well. This plant uses the latest in emission control technology. It is state of the art.
We also have an ethanol plant attached to the powerplant, so the waste steam that comes off the powerplant is used to power the ethanol plant to make low-cost transportation fuel as well.
In addition to those things, another innovation at this plant is that after they produce the electricity, they take hundreds of thousands of tons of coal ash and, rather than landfilling it, they actually reuse it, and they use it to make concrete--they call it FlexCrete--for highways, they use it in building materials, and they even use it in products such as the shingles we use on our roofs.
Formerly, this plant paid about $4 million a year to landfill that coal ash. Now they sell it for all these products and generate around $12 million a year in revenue. If you take the $4 million they used to expend to landfill the material, figure in the $12 million they now make selling the product, that is a $16 million revenue benefit to the plant. That means a $16 million reduction in the cost of electricity to their customers throughout North Dakota and Minnesota.
At the same time, because they have partnered with a company out of Utah called Headwaters, right there at the complex they also have a facility that manufactures these building products, FlexCrete, and creates good-paying jobs as well.
Today I rise to introduce commonsense, bipartisan legislation--a jobs bill, if you will--the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act. In fact, this legislation has already passed the House of Representatives with a large bipartisan majority.
In a true example of American ingenuity and innovation, entrepreneurs around the country are recycling coal ash. Millions of Americans now work in buildings that are either partially constructed from coal ash- strengthened building materials or they drive home from work on roads and over bridges that are made of coal ash concrete or, as I said, they live under roofs that are shingled, and those shingles are made out of this coal residuals material. In fact, in my home State of North Dakota, we have both our Heritage Center, which is under construction now, and also the National Energy Center of Excellence that were constructed with these materials.
First, this National Energy Center of Excellence, this is the Bismarck State College. They specialize in energy programs. This facility overlooks the Missouri River and it is about a $20-plus million facility. It is absolutely beautiful, and it is made with the coal residual building materials.
On this other slide, right now this facility is under construction. This will be a more than $50 million facility, which is, in essence, a museum and a heritage center for the State of North Dakota. The building materials in this state-of-art facility will have both static and interactive displays and is being built with what is called coal ash--but coal residual materials. These are materials coming out of powerplants that were formerly simply landfill, and now we are using them for all these purposes. The important point is, we need to be able to continue to do that. That is exactly why I am introducing this legislation.
It turns out that using this natural byproduct of coal combustion not only makes our buildings and infrastructure stronger, it makes homes, businesses, and highways more affordable to build. It also creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process, while using this cost- effective material.
Meanwhile, by using coal ash in such an innovative manner, it is estimated the overall energy consumption in this country can be reduced by 162 trillion Btu's, British thermal units, and that water usage is reduced annually by 32 billion gallons a year. That is the equivalent of the amount of energy used by 1.7 million homes a year and the amount of water--actually one-third of the amount of water used in the entire State of California each year. So we can see from a conservation standpoint what an incredible impact using these materials has.
Unfortunately, the EPA is now considering whether to overturn 30 years of precedent and regulate coal ash as a hazardous material, despite findings from the Department of Energy, the Federal Highway Administration, and State regulatory agencies throughout the country, as well as EPA itself. EPA's own studies show the toxicity level in coal ash is well below the criteria that requires any type of hazardous waste designation.
In fact, the EPA's May 2000 regulatory determination--in that determination they concluded that coal ash does not warrant regulation as hazardous waste and that doing so would be environmentally counterproductive. However, new regulations first proposed in June of 2010 would create a stigma for coal ash recycling and expose it to frivolous lawsuits that could undermine the industry, cost thousands of jobs, and take billions of dollars out of our economy at a time when working families can least afford it. But the damage to American's pocketbooks would not just stop with the undermining of this recycling industry.
It is estimated that meeting the regulatory disposal requirements under the EPA's subtitle C proposal would cost between $250 and $450 per ton, as opposed to about $100 per ton under the current system. That could mean up to another $50 billion in costs, a burden on our electricity generators that use coal and, most important, customers-- American families, businesses, and farmers--again, Americans throughout this great country.
It is also estimated this regulation by EPA, this proposal, could mean the loss of more than 300,000 American jobs. That is why I have at the desk the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, which I am introducing today, along with Senator Kent Conrad, Senator Michael Enzi, Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Rob Portman, Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Joe Manchin, and also Senator John Boozman; four Republicans and four Democrats. This is truly a bipartisan piece of legislation.
As I said, it is a companion to H. Res. 2273 that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday with strong--and I emphasize strong--bipartisan support. It takes a commonsense approach to ensuring we can continue
this vital industry and, in fact, build it, save millions of dollars for American consumers and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
This bill not only preserves coal ash recycling by preventing the byproducts from being treated as hazardous, it establishes Federal standards for coal ash disposal. Under this legislation, States can set up their own permitting programs for the management and disposal of coal ash. These programs would be required to be based on existing EPA regulations to protect human health and the environment. If a State does not implement an acceptable permit program, then the EPA regulates the program for that State.
Importantly, States will know where they stand under this bill since the benchmark for what constitutes a successful State program is set in statute. EPA can say: Yes, the State does meet these standards or, no, it doesn't. But EPA cannot move the goalposts. This is a State's first approach that provides regulatory certainty. What is certain is, under this bill, coal ash disposal sites will be required to meet established standards. These include groundwater detection and monitoring, liners, corrective action when environmental damage occurs, structural stability criteria and financial assurance and the recordkeeping needed to protect the public.
The Coal Residual Reuse and Management Act is legislation needed to protect jobs and help reduce the cost of home and road construction and electric bills.
I wish to thank both the Republicans and the Democrats who have taken a leadership role and are joining me in cosponsoring this legislation. I particularly wish to thank my fellow Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Kent Conrad. I urge our colleagues to join us and support this important measure.
