McConnell Slams New EPA Rules on Coal Plants

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell charged on Saturday that new regulations limiting carbon emissions on coal-fired plants under development by the Environmental Protection Agency would "guarantee that there will never be another coal-fired plant built in America."

"That's 40 percent of our electricity," the Kentucky Republican told former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Fox News Channel program. "Coal keeps the lights on."

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McConnell this week filed a formal resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, employing a little-used legislative tactic against EPA regulations that would limit the amount of carbon dioxide that new power plants could emit, Fox News reports.

The legislative provision, used successfully only once since it was enacted in 1996, allows Congress to block regulations set by the executive branch that legislators consider onerous, Fox reports.

"We've got a depression, not a recession, in central Appalachia," McConnell told Huckabee. "We've lost 5,000 out of 18,000 coal mining jobs in my state.

"For every coal-mining job you lose, you lose three more," he added. "It's a depression created by this administration and the EPA."

The new regulations, published in the Federal Register this week, will not likely be made final until after this November's congressional elections.

McConnell and other House Republicans also have accused the Obama administration for delaying the publishing of the EPA regulations to protect vulnerable Democrats in coal-producing states, Fox reports.

The new regulations would require technology that is too expensive, poses safety risks and is not yet commercially available, McConnell said.

"What we're doing is implementing is what's called a congressional review process to try to overturn that regulation," he told Huckabee. "I'm not optimistic, obviously, that the president will sign it if we can put it on his desk, but we're going to try.

"The only way to end this depression is to have a new president, a new administration — and I'm optimistic that we're going to get that in three years."

McConnell's filing this week was supported by another coal-state senator, John Thune of South Dakota.

“Nearly 350,000 Americans simply stopped looking for work in the month of December, leading to the lowest labor participation rate since Jimmy Carter, yet the Obama EPA continues to push for more job-killing energy taxes,” Thune, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said in a statement to Newsmax.

"Democrats continue to pander to far-left environmental groups by saddling reliable sources of energy with unnecessary climate regulations that will slash jobs and increase energy costs.

"Instead of pursuing a war on affordable energy, the president should work with Congress to help get the 3.9 million long-term unemployed Americans back to work, while keeping the cost of energy affordable for all Americans," Thune said.

But the Sierra Club and other environmental groups slammed the filing.

"McConnell is attacking [the rules] before the Environmental Protection Agency has even determined what they will be," Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club's deputy legislative director, told The Wall Street Journal.

"McConnell’s political maneuver is like asking for instant replay before the football is even snapped."

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