Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
3/6/2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has called on states to reject the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission guidelines for existing coal burning power plant by not submitting state implementation plans for compliance with the rule. In an editorial published this week in the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper, McConnell said that delays in submitting plans could give opponents of the rule time to get it overturned. “Think twice before submitting a state plan — which could lock you in to federal enforcement and expose you to lawsuits — when the administration is standing on shaky legal ground and when, without your support, it won’t be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism. Refusing to go along at this time with such an extreme proposed regulation would give the courts time to figure out if it is even legal, and it would give Congress more time to fight back. We’re devising strategies now to do just that,” McConnell wrote.
The proposed rule is due to be finalized this summer and will require states to develop action plans to meet EPA set carbon emission reduction goals. These action plans will have to be submitted in 2016, according to the proposed rule. However, according to McConnell, the proposed rule may not be legal and even if it is, it will cast an undue burden on the middle class. “Just consider how extreme this regulation is. According to a respected group of economists, the regulation could cost our country about a third of a trillion dollars in compliance costs and cause electricity price hikes in nearly every state,” McConnell wrote. “And who gets hit hardest when energy bills go up? Lower-income families. Seniors on Social Security and a fixed budget. Those who struggle just to get by. These are the people the administration has chosen to attack.”
Following a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), expressed shock at the editorial, telling reporters that she could not recall another instance of a “leader of the United States Senate telling states to disobey a law that’s been upheld three times by the Supreme Court and a law that’s protecting the health and safety of the People.” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, also speaking with reporters after the hearing, at which she was a witness, said the EPA has been diligent in working with states throughout the rule making process. “That will not stop,” she said, “and we continue to have tremendous dialogue with the states including the state of Kentucky.”
