The takeaway message of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s latest hearing on U.S. environmental policies boils down to this dilemma: the federal government is too involved in the energy industry, and the energy industry is too involved in the government. Admittedly, discerning a core message from the hearing, which featured testimony from a priest, a pastor, a military strategist, a retired military general, and a philosopher, was no simple task.
The Obama administration’s climate policies have attacked coal country and the fossil fuel industry, Republican senators argued Wednesday. “[Coal] jobs are being crushed because of political decisions made by this administration,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said during the hearing. “People do not know where to go, how to get a similar job [with] the same pay, the same benefits, how to provide for their families.”
The administration finalized two major regulations on coal energy generation in the past year. The New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) essentially mandate the use of carbon capture and storage technology on any new-build coal-fired power plant. This regulation will make it too expensive to build new coal plants, opponents of the rule argue.
The NSPS’ sister regulation has received far more attention. The Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set carbon emissions reduction goals. Opponents claim the rule is no more than an EPA power grab, intended to give the agency control of the nation’s energy mix.
The idea of government over-interference was also floated on the other side of the aisle, as Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) noted the ongoing subsidization of long-established fossil energy industries. “Subsidies for the oil industry, 100 years old; subsidies for the coal industry, 100 years old; subsidies for the nuclear industry, 70 years old,” Markey said, then going on to suggest that the reason for the substantial government support of these industries is because of the fossil industries’ involvement in the government.
“Try to get the same level of subsidies for the wind and solar industry and [the fossil] industries write letters to members of Congress saying ‘please do not allow for the perversion of subsidies to infect the free market,’ even though their entire business premise are tax breaks from the government,” Markey said, adding to previous comments made by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) regarding the fossil fuel industry’s lobbying activities.
Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) also mentioned the “the insidious role of dirty money in politics” later in the hearing.
