SILVER SPRING, MD -- Before a group at NRMCA member company Hilltop Basic Resources in Cincinnati yesterday, President Obama called for a renewed commitment to job creation and economic growth by increasing federal dollars to invest in our nation’s infrastructure by rebuilding roads and bridges. As a backdrop to advance his jobs bill, the president strategically chose the 47-year-old structurally-deficient Brent Spence Bridge, which spans the Ohio River between Ohio and Kentucky.
“While we support using our industry as a vehicle to foster job growth and economic prosperity,” said Robert Garbini, president of NRMCA, “we hope that the President would recognize his using an already overly taxed and regulated industry as a platform to discuss job creation while promoting more regulations as being counterproductive.
“Based on knowledge of previous and current market forces within our nation’s construction materials industries, it is the opinion of NRMCA that should the Environmental Protection Agency continue with its promulgation of the proposed Coal Combustion Residuals disposal rule, commonly known as fly ash, and the Cement MACT rule, it will certainly invite unforeseen events resulting in the increased cost of our nation’s most basic construction materials, such as concrete of which cement and fly ash are essential components, and jeopardize the jobs of many in an industry that has already been economically devastated,” said Garbini.
Garbini noted that while the president’s visit to Hilltop elevated the importance of transportation funding, his total lack of consideration for EPA’s over-reaching arm to force burdensome regulation, further strangles the industry’s ability to recover from the current economic malaise or create jobs.
Highlighting the magnitude of numerous new regulations, this year’s annual Competitive Enterprise Institute study found that the federal government issues a new regulation every two hours and 20 minutes. Furthermore, in August, at the request of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the president released a list of the most costly regulations exceeding $1 billion proposed under his administration. Of the seven listed, a staggering four are linked to the ready mixed concrete industry.
