Toomey Talks About Regulations, EAS
By ANNE HOLLIDAY
WESB/WBRR News Director
American Refining Group should not be treated by the Environmental Protection Agency like giant refineries.
That’s the opinion of US Senator Pat Toomey who visited the Bradford Refinery Wednesday morning.
Toomey said he visited the refinery because it’s “an important employer in McKean County. It’s got a wonderful, long, rich history. It has a very high average wage, certainly for this area and so the workers here are important constituents.”
“I’m on a continuous effort all across the Commonwealth to learn about what we could be doing in Washington differently to encourage and to enable a company like this to grow and expand and hire more workers,” Toomey said.
He said he often hears about things Washington is doing that’s the exact opposite. For example, he said, big regulators including the EPA treat all refiners as though they are the same, and impose the same regulations on refineries like ARG that they impose on “gigantic refiners like Conoco(Phillips) and Exxon Mobil.”
“I think the folks here (ARG) make a strong case that there are very valid reasons why we ought to look at refiners that are different differently,” Toomey said. “Part of what I can do is go back to Washington and try to convey that message to the EPA.”
During the refinery tour, which included ARG President and CEO Jeannine Schoenecker and Vice President of External Affairs Bob Esch, Toomey asked a number of questions about the operation and the energy industry in general. One question was about Marcellus Shale and how the booming industry is affecting ARG.
Esch said they expect the Utica Shale drilling efforts, which are still in relative infancy, to have more of an affect than the Marcellus. The Utica Shale is about 2,000 feet below the Marcellus and covers a larger area.
Also during the tour, Schoenecker initiated a conversation with Toomey about the Essential Air Service program. He opposes full funding for the program. Toomey flew from Allentown to Bradford Regional Airport, which gets money from the federal program that provides subsidies to airlines for providing passenger service to small airports that would otherwise go without.
Toomey, who is on the super committee created by the Budget Control Act, said they have to look at every possible area of savings.
“Frankly, I think one of them is going to have to be subsidies,” he said. “When taxpayers are forced to subsidize some people’s use of commercial flights, there’s a real question as to whether that’s fair in the first place.”
“It’s just not affordable,” he added. “I think that’s going to be scaled back. It’s probably not going to be eliminated, but it’s going to have to be scaled back.”
WESB/WBRR News Director
American Refining Group should not be treated by the Environmental Protection Agency like giant refineries.
That’s the opinion of US Senator Pat Toomey who visited the Bradford Refinery Wednesday morning.
Toomey said he visited the refinery because it’s “an important employer in McKean County. It’s got a wonderful, long, rich history. It has a very high average wage, certainly for this area and so the workers here are important constituents.”
“I’m on a continuous effort all across the Commonwealth to learn about what we could be doing in Washington differently to encourage and to enable a company like this to grow and expand and hire more workers,” Toomey said.
He said he often hears about things Washington is doing that’s the exact opposite. For example, he said, big regulators including the EPA treat all refiners as though they are the same, and impose the same regulations on refineries like ARG that they impose on “gigantic refiners like Conoco(Phillips) and Exxon Mobil.”
“I think the folks here (ARG) make a strong case that there are very valid reasons why we ought to look at refiners that are different differently,” Toomey said. “Part of what I can do is go back to Washington and try to convey that message to the EPA.”
During the refinery tour, which included ARG President and CEO Jeannine Schoenecker and Vice President of External Affairs Bob Esch, Toomey asked a number of questions about the operation and the energy industry in general. One question was about Marcellus Shale and how the booming industry is affecting ARG.
Esch said they expect the Utica Shale drilling efforts, which are still in relative infancy, to have more of an affect than the Marcellus. The Utica Shale is about 2,000 feet below the Marcellus and covers a larger area.
Also during the tour, Schoenecker initiated a conversation with Toomey about the Essential Air Service program. He opposes full funding for the program. Toomey flew from Allentown to Bradford Regional Airport, which gets money from the federal program that provides subsidies to airlines for providing passenger service to small airports that would otherwise go without.
Toomey, who is on the super committee created by the Budget Control Act, said they have to look at every possible area of savings.
“Frankly, I think one of them is going to have to be subsidies,” he said. “When taxpayers are forced to subsidize some people’s use of commercial flights, there’s a real question as to whether that’s fair in the first place.”
“It’s just not affordable,” he added. “I think that’s going to be scaled back. It’s probably not going to be eliminated, but it’s going to have to be scaled back.”
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